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REACHING THE CHILDREN 

A BOOK FOR TEACHERS 
AND PARENTS 



BY 

HENRY C. KREBS 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, SOMERSET COUNTY 
NEW JERSEY 

WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
CALVIN N. KENDALL, LL.D. 

COMMISSIONER OP EDUCATION OF NEW JERSEY 




NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 
THE A. S. BARNES COMPANY 



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COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY 
THE A. S. BARNES COMPANY 



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MAY 10 1916 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

I. The Aim 1 

II. The Teacher as Inspieer 7 

III. Through the Class Recitation 13 

IV. Through the School Library 18 

V. Through the Playground 27 

VT. Through Industrial Training 33 

VII. Through Self-Government 38 

VIII. Through the Private Conversation 46 

IX. Through Encouragement 54 

X. Through Talks by the Teacher 63 

XI. Through Fine Sentiments 70 

XII. Through Sympathy 76 

XIII. Through Direct Moral Instruction 85 

XIV. Through Companionship " 91 

XV. Through Ideals 97 

XVI. Through Instruction in Health 103 

XVII. Through Removing False Ideas 109 

XVIII. Through Allegory 114 

XIX. Through Tact 118 

XX. Through Enthusiasm 123 



INTRODUCTION 

"Train up a child in the way he should go and 
when he is old he will not depart from it" was said 
long ago. This counsel is a constant reminder of the 
duty of teachers and parents. 

The present century has been aptly called the chil- 
dren's century. Increasing reverence for childhood 
is one of its dominant characteristics. This reverence 
is both the cause and the effect of a better under- 
standing of children. Never before were so many 
earnest men and women giving their best thought 
and effort to a study of children as at present. They 
profoundly realize that children are the greatest of 
the potential assets of a community or of a state. 

The practice of good schools and of well ordered 
homes in training children has been modified as a 
result of the better understanding of children. So 
far as the school is concerned, there is a growing 
conviction that the child does not exist for the school 
but that the school exists for the child; a conviction 
that the child has his own way of feeling, thinking, 
and doing, which is not the way of men and women 
of forty. As Saint Paul said, "When I was a child, 
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought 
as a child: but when I became a man I put away 
childish things.'* There is also a conviction that the 
individual child is becoming more and more the center 



vi INTRODUCTION 



of educational interest and effort, and that his actual 
present need, rather than his probable future need, 
should be emphasized. 

Bearing these considerations in mind, any well 
thought out contribution to the means that may be 
employed for the training of children is to be wel- 
comed, and Superintendent Krebs has made such a 
contribution in this little book. The contribution is 
a practical one. Mr. Krebs for many years has had 
the opportunity of working with teachers, particu- 
larly with those in the rural and town schools. The 
book is therefore the outgrowth of experience and 
not the mere expression of theories. The title, 
"Reaching the Children," is a good one. To reach 
them is not easy, but to reach them is essential if 
educational processes are to be effective. Indeed, the 
failure of some of our educational activities in both 
the school and the home may be traced to a failure 
to understand the mind and the heart of children. 

In a series of twenty chapters Mr. Krebs points 
out for the use of teachers and parents some of the 
ways of reaching children. No teacher, however in- 
experienced, and no mother or father, after reading 
this interesting book carefully, will regard the child 
and the ways of training him in quite the same way 
as before. The contribution deserves a wide reading 
in both the school and the home, the two institutions 
upon which so much depends. 

Calvin N. Kendall, 
Commissioner of Education 
April, 1916, Trenton, N.J. 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 

Chapter I 
TEE AIM 

So manifold is the opportunity, so open is the road of the 
higher success to ability, industry, and character, that human life 
may fairly be described as a divine chance to do and to be that 
which lies in the imagination of youth. God does not deceive the 
fresh, instinctive faith of childhood; life does not lie to those who 
trust its promises. It is commonplace only to those whose natures, 
tastes, and aims are commonplace. — Hamilton W. Mabie. 

Scorn trifles, lift your aims; do what you are afraid to do. 
Sublimity of character must come from sublimity of motive. — 
Maey Emeeson. 

What is the chief purpose of the school? What 
should be the primary aim of the teacher? These 
are fundamental questions. On their correct answer 
depends the attitude of the teacher and of parents, 
and the attitude governs the results. 

The central principle of education is the self- 
activity of the child. To this principle all others 
are subservient. Without the self-activity of the 
child little can be accomplished. There is no reac- 
tion to the instruction. There is no growth, no 
development. 

In the light of this principle the purpose of the 
school is plain. It is to arouse the self -activity of 



2 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

the child and guide this activity into right channels. 
The aim of the teacher should be to inspire the 
pupils, and to the degree in which she succeeds in 
doing this is her success measured. 

Proficiency in school work may be secured by a 
teacher who drives her pupils through threat of pun- 
ishment. This proficiency is, however, of little value 
because it is not based on the pupil's self-activity. 
It is based merely on the pupil's activity, which 
is a totally different matter. Activity that does not 
originate in the pupil has no permanent qualities. 

It is to be feared that many teachers are satisfied 
if they can secure quiet in their schoolrooms and a 
reasonable degree of good work in school subjects. 
This may or may not mean good results in the lives 
of the pupils. The measure is the degree of self- 
activity that is involved in the process. A child who 
is a poor penman but full of energy and ambition 
may become a Horace Greeley; while the good pen- 
man without such qualities may never rise above the 
commonplace. 

The discerning visitor to a schoolroom will there- 
fore look through and beyond the things that meet 
the eye and the ear. He will not only look for good 
performances, but for the principle underlying them. 
Is the teacher reaching her pupils? Does she inspire 
them? Is her teaching such as to arouse their self- 
activity? If so, the work is fundamentally good, and 
if not, the work is essentially poor, however brave 
the show. 

If the purpose of the teacher and the school as 
thus stated is accepted, several deductions follow. 



TEE AIM 3 



In the first place, extensive learning, though very- 
valuable, is not indispensable to the teacher. There 
are some who are so interested in subject matter that 
they lose sight of the pupil who is being taught. The 
broader the education of the teacher the greater the 
danger of falling into this error. When a teacher 
of profound scholarship has also the right attitude 
toward children, she becomes a conspicuously great 
teacher. 

But there are hundreds of instances of persons of 
very mediocre attainments in scholarship who have 
nevertheless produced remarkable results through 
their enthusiasm. That they would have been greatly 
aided by scholarship is freely admitted; but in spite 
of that handicap their effectiveness in reaching the 
children is noteworthy. 

In an obscure country school in Pennsylvania there 
taught a teacher who had difficulty in working the 
problems in an ordinary elementary arithmetic. He 
would often say to his pupils, "For to-morrow we 
will try the next five problems. I will work as many 
as I can myself, and we may be able to get the rest 
together." This very inefficiency of the teacher 
proved a blessing to the pupils, because they were 
thrown on their own resources. But this teacher 
was filled with enthusiasm and earnestness. He could 
point out the way even if he could not travel it him- 
self; and from that small, remote school came no 
less than twenty-three college graduates, many of 
whom have gained distinction in the professions, as 
well as men who have become markedly successful 
in business. After his retirement, fifty of these men 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



gathered to pay homage to the teacher who had given 
them their inspiration toward success. This teacher 
could show no high grade certificates or diplomas, pos- 
sessed no degrees, knew little of the field of learning, 
but he had reached the children. 

Pestalozzi founded our system of popular education. 
His own methods of teaching are said to have been 
crude. He talked too much during a recitation — 
gave the children little opportunity to express them- 
selves; but he was so full of enthusiasm for the work 
and so permeated with love for the children that he 
reached the hearts of all, and stimulated them to a 
remarkable degree. 

In the second place, teachers will carefully consider 
their methods of teaching and the incentives placed 
before the pupils, and will ask themselves whether 
these are such as will arouse an abiding interest in the 
hearts of the children, or whether their influence will 
pass away with the ending of school days. They 
will carefully use the many avenues of approach to 
the interests of the children until some way is found 
that leads to their hearts. Children will no longer 
be considered merely as pupils to be taught, but as 
individuals to be studied and helped as may be neces- 
sary. Good teaching demands not only learning and 
pedagogy, but also psychology in its broadest sense. 

Instead, then, of having a superficial view of the 
profession, the teacher should consider it of profound 
importance. 

It requires all the elements of heart and mind that 
any one can possess. It is the most responsible 
work that can engage the human mind. It puts to 



THE AIM 



the test all the tact and judgment and courage that 
are in the teacher. Its results are so far reaching 
for good that no one can even estimate their value. 
And there is so much opportunity for leaving things 
undone — for fatal omissions — that no one can es- 
timate the possible loss. Teachers often fail to 
appreciate the significance of this work, but begin 
it as a matter of mere occupation instead of a means 
of effective service. They do not know how to teach, 
nor why they teach. Our State authorities are wisely 
raising their standards of certification; and it is hoped 
that the time is not far distant when at least some 
training for teaching may be required of all appli- 
cants, and the entirely unprepared teacher may be 
excluded. 

It is the purpose of the following chapters to point 
out specific means of reaching the children. It is 
believed that with sufficient insight all can be reached. 
What appeals to one may not appeal to another. The 
teacher must have all these means consciously in 
mind, and must employ them judiciously in accord- 
ance with the disposition of each child. 

Many teachers of good purposes have failed to be 
completely successful because their aims lacked defi- 
niteness. Their ambition was to do good to the 
children; but they did not set forth their purposes 
in detail or employ them with exactness and fore- 
thought. 

The physician may have a perfect attitude toward 
his work, but he nevertheless needs detailed and spe- 
cific knowledge of medicine in order to cure his 
patients. This is true of all professions, and of all 



6 REACHING TEE CHILDREN 

lines of business. So, in the work of teaching, a merely- 
good person will be of little usefulness unless she is 
skilled in the art of discovering and employing the 
means that will accomplish the chief aim of the school 
— arousing the ambition of pupils, and directing it 
in the right channel. 



Chapter II 
TEE TEACHER AS INSPIRER 

How shall he give kindling in whose own inward man there is 
no live coal, but all is burnt out to a dead grammatical cinder? — 
Cakltle. 

The school is the manufactory of humanity. — Confucius. 

He who honestly instructs reverences God. — Mohammed. 

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogma- 
tizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. — 
Bulwer-Lytton. 

There is no human life so poor and small as not to hold many 
a divine possibility. — James Martineau. 

Lowell says of Emerson that "he had the supreme 
power of fertilizing other minds." Longfellow spent 
several days with Emerson, and on his return wrote 
poetry with great intensity for many weeks. No 
American writer has had so much influence on thought 
in this country as Emerson. He was the great in- 
spirer of America. Many obscurities may be found in 
his prose writings, and some of his poems are said to 
have no beginning, or middle, or end. Nevertheless 
they arouse the reader, and set him on fire with am- 
bition, thus doing what the mere rhetorician can never 
accomplish through a faultless style. 

This is what Emerson says of teaching: "The 
greatest enterprise in the world, for splendor, for 
extent, is the up-building of a man." He also says 



8 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

elsewhere that the value of a country should be meas- 
ured neither by the census nor the crops, but by the 
kind of men it produces. 

The great names of the past are the names of in- 
spirers. Who is the greatest navigator in all history? 
Christopher Columbus. Did he make the longest or 
quickest voyage in the world.'* No. Did he sail the 
largest ship in the world.? No — he made a slow 
voyage in three miserable ships. And the results 
of his voyages would have been meager indeed if 
his example had not inspired others to continue and 
develop his enterprise. 

Who is the greatest scientist of modern times? 
Charles Darwin. Did he know more science than any 
one else? No — Spencer and Tyndall and Huxley 
knew much more than he did. But Darwin gave a 
marvelous impulse to thought by his epoch-making 
book "The Origin of Species." Other scientists merely 
advanced and developed the ideas he originated; and 
his place of supremacy is sure. 

The greatest novelist in English literature is Samuel 
Richardson. Almost no one now reads the nine vol- 
umes that make up his novel "Clarissa Harlowe"; 
and comparatively few have read "Pamela." Thack- 
eray and Dickens have written better novels, but 
Richardson founded the school of sentimental fiction, 
and the founder is always greater than the successor. 

David Hume ranks highest as historian of England 
because he founded the literary school of historical 
writing that reached its height in Froude, Green, 
Freeman, and Macaulay. 

Horace Mann was never superintendent of the 



TEE TEACHER AS INSPIRER 9 

largest city in America, nor was he State Superin- 
tendent; but his name will rank first in American 
educational history because he "blazed the way*' 
in the glorious enterprise of improving school systems. 

In colonial history we know the names of those who 
founded the colonies, but the names of their successors 
are obscure. 

Thes^ illustrations have been brought forward in 
corroboration of Emerson's statement that the up- 
building of man is the greatest enterprise in the world. 
We teachers are engaged in this wonderful work; 
and if we reach the pupils and send them forth to 
live noble and useful lives and perhaps to make great 
names for themselves we are nevertheless the authors 
of their success, and in that sense the credit of their 
achievements is ours. 

It is of course true that the name of the teacher 
is often unknown to the world when the name of the 
pupil is famous. But what of that.f^ The fact re- 
mains, whether known or unknown. 

One of the most mischievous ideas in the minds of 
some people is that publicity is necessary to great- 
ness — that a man's success in life is measured by the 
number of times his name appears in the newspapers. 
This may be fame, but it is not necessarily success or 
greatness. The quiet, unobtrusive worker may set 
in motion forces that will revolutionize the world. 
Name and fame are nothing — results are everything. 

The teacher who inspires her pupils is on the same 
plane with all other persons in the world's history 
who inspired others. If she sends forth pupils full 
of ambition she has accomplished immeasurable re- 



10 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

suits. No one can estimate the extent of her in- 
fluence. What a splendid opportunity the teacher's 
work thus presents! To play a conspicuous part in 
making the world better, to be the fountain of a 
stream of influence that will broaden and deepen as 
it flows for generations to come — a teacher is hope- 
less if this prospect does not lift her up and inspire 
her soul with zeal and energy and a determination 
that will transform her life and her work. 

The story in Genesis tells how man was made in 
the image of God; but he was mere clay until God 
breathed into him the breath of life. Only then did 
he become a living soul. 

There are some communities in which it seems as 
if the only life were physical. There are few signs 
of intellectual and moral and spiritual life. Yet the 
capacity for these higher qualities is there, and when 
once the big, strong, virile physical becomes trans- 
formed by a great idea, there is no end to the heights 
to which the individual may attain. The soil is there 
— it needs seed and fertilizer to produce crops. 
'l "My people perish for lack of knowledge," said the 
prophet. Persons in remote communities, living on 
a low plane, are benighted simply because they do 
not know any better. How can they? Children see 
and hear and think naught but the low ideals in which 
they are brought up. This is generally true in all 
states of society. The children are not to blame for 
their conditions. They cannot control the place nor 
the circumstances into which they are born. Yet 
they may be just as capable as the children of the 
most favored. Of any two children in the world no 



TEE TEACHER AS INSPIRER 11 

one can tell which will do the greater service to 
mankind. 

Into such a community the inspiring teacher comes 
as a being from another sphere. She brings to the 
children glimpses of a new world. Without directly 
condemning the barren wastes in which the people 
live she will point out the green fields and the bab- 
bling brooks of the new country. The children will 
come to feel that they need not live in this lowly con- 
dition all their lives, but may advance to something 
better. This is truly a great opportunity for the 
teacher. 

Backward communities are precisely those in which 
inspiring teachers are most needed; and yet the 
schools in such localities are often the refuge for such 
teachers as no other community wants. When a 
teacher cannot, because of lack of qualifications, get 
a desirable school she takes as a last resort what is 
generally considered an undesirable school; and be- 
cause this school has a lowly reputation some teachers 
feel that "anything goes." They see no call for skill 
in teaching and management. The children are of a 
low class, and so they will remain. Because there 
are but ten children in this school the work is not 
worth while; yet Abraham Lincoln attended such a 
school, and he alone was worth while. 

Young teachers usually and very properly get the 
most desirable positions they can; but a higher mo- 
tive is to seek the position in which one can do 
the most good. Surely there are more opportunities 
for valuable service in backward districts where the 
teacher is the only light in the community than there 



12 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

are in a city where there are hundreds of influences 
that make for enlightenment. 

When a teacher deliberately elects to teach in a 
backward community, not only will she do more good 
than elsewhere, but she will get more good than else- 
where. Giving inspiration to others always reacts on 
the giver. Doing a noble work in any community 
exalts the character of the doer. Mrs. Ballington 
Booth, whose life is spent in reclaiming criminals, has 
a light in her face that would not be there if she were 
living the life of ordinary society. Missionaries re- 
turning from heathen lands have a "something" in 
their personality that distinguishes them in a crowd. 
This "something" is one of the worth while things 
of life; and the teacher who breathes inspiration into 
a school and into a community stamps her features 
and her character with the mark of a great accom- 
plishment. 



Chapter III 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH THE CLASS 
RECITATION 

The greatest poet is not he who has done the best; it is he who 
suggests the most. — Emerson. 

In all schools pupils recite their lessons. The 
teacher spends the greater part of each day in con- 
ducting recitations; and her daily preparation is de- 
voted largely to the work of the recitation. 

Teachers and pupils sometimes take the recitation 
period so much as a matter of course that they are 
not conscious of the momentous character of this part 
of the school day. Years ago the current idea of the 
recitation was that the teacher should tell pupils 
some facts and at another time the pupils should 
recite them — that is, should *'tell them back'* to 
the teacher. Or the teacher would assign several 
pages in the book and the recitation would consist 
in giving these back to the teacher. Sometimes the 
teacher would do knitting while the class was reciting, 
following the pages with her eye and punishing those 
who failed to recite verbatim. 

This was, of course, a wholly inadequate idea of 
the worth and purpose of the recitation. A great 
step in advance was taken when Dr. E. E. White 
taught that the objects of the recitation are to test. 



14 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

to drill, and to instruct. Unless, however, we are 
willing to give to the word instruct a very broad 
construction, we must, in the light of the central 
purpose of this book, add one more element to the 
recitation, and that is to inspire. 

The recitation period is therefore an opportunity 
period. It presents the occasion for the interaction 
of the mind of the teacher and the minds of the pupils. 
The assigned lessons are merely the basis for this 
play of mind on mind. They afford the material of 
thought. But the electrical connection is necessary 
before these materials produce light. Otherwise they 
are dead matter. 

Every well taught lesson inspires pupils. If the 
teacher has a fund of scholarship, if she has assembled 
the information and other material for the lesson of 
the day, has organized it and vivified it by special 
preparation, her class will receive an interest in the 
subject, a desire to know more in regard to it, and a 
glow of enthusiasm that will weld the impressions into 
permanent forms; and if the lesson contains a spirit- 
ual element, the pupils will attain to higher stand- 
ards, and form higher ideals. 

It is said that when John S. C. Abbott was engaged 
in writing his "Life of Napoleon," he knelt down in his 
library every morning before beginning his work to 
seek divine guidance. The opportunity for reaching 
the children through the recitation is so great, and 
its neglect so disastrous, that the teacher should not 
undertake it without at least some sense of the solemn 
duty of the hour to make the recitation effective for 
inspiration as well as for instruction. 



THROUGH THE CLASS RECITATION 15 

Pupils should be given a realizing sense of the dig- 
nity of the recitation period. In many classrooms 
some pupils remain at their seats to study. These 
latter should clearly understand that they must do 
nothing whatever that might interrupt the recitation. 
No hands should be raised, no questions asked, no 
noise be made, that might attract the attention of 
either teacher or pupils. The teacher must give her 
undivided attention to the pupils reciting; otherwise 
the connection of interest will be broken, and the 
effect of the recitation lost. 

Teachers have been known to start a class in oral 
reading and then go among the pupils not reciting 
and give help here and there, thus taking their atten- 
tion from the reading lesson. This is, of course, 
vitally wrong. This makes oral reading a purely 
mechanical exercise. There can be no interaction of 
mind on mind unless all are attentive to the work in 
hand. Such a teacher will never realize the possi- 
bilities of the recitation period. 

Another main reason why the recitation period is 
not inspiring has already been suggested. It is be- 
cause the teacher does not possess fulness of knowl- 
edge in regard to the lesson. Very rarely should a 
teacher have a book in her hand during a recitation 
period. Her eyes should be on the pupils. There 
must be a direct connection between mind and mind. 
The book breaks the connection. 

Many recitation periods are of little value because 
of the wrong method of conducting them. In oral 
reading lessons the teacher asks a pupil to rise and 
read, and tells the others to "watch for mistakes." 



16 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

When the pupil has read the paragraph, the hands of 
the others are all raised. "What mistake did you see, 
John?" asks the teacher. "She repeated!" says John, 
with a note of satisfaction in his voice because he was 
sharp enough to detect an error. "She said the for 
a/" says Mary, with equal triumph. "Didn't hold 
her book in the left hand!" is Charley's sage sugges- 
tion. And so the process goes on, a pure waste of 
time, a frittering away of the precious minutes of 
the recitation, not an iota of good accomplished. No 
wonder children receive no impetus from such fatuous 
performances. Yet such recitations occur every day 
in every state in the Union. We are still far from 
grasping the significance of the recitation period. 

No recitation period is of value unless some things 
are definitely clinched. When the pupils take their 
seats they must be conscious of a definite acquisition. 
They must have a solid foundation for further study. 
They can only be reached if they themselves feel 
that they have learned something, have taken a dis- 
tinct step in advance in the process of gaining knowl- 
edge. There is much unconscious development in 
the school, but there is also much that the pupil 
must clearly realize. He will not be likely to take 
an interest in school, or be susceptible to uplifting 
influences, if the school exercises seem to him mere 
"marking time," mere routine, mere things that must 
be done because this is school. Here we have drudg- 
ery, not work. There is no oxygen in this atmosphere 
— only distilled air, that can neither give life, nor 
sustain life. 

What a deHght it is to watch a teacher conduct a 



THROUGH THE CLASS RECITATION 17 

recitation when she is thoroughly prepared and knows 
how to teach! The pupils are eager. She leads them 
through pleasant paths. Her knowledge is fresh and 
clear. Every question has a purpose. She is master 
of the whole situation. There is electricity in the 
air. When the period is over the pupils have gained 
something. They have made a distinct acquisition. 
They have had a valuable intellectual exercise. They 
have a new interest in the subject. They are anxious 
to pursue it further. 

On the other hand, how disappointing it is to see 
a teacher waste her opportunities through failure to 
prepare her lesson properly! She can do little but 
refer to the book. There is no mental action and 
reaction, no interest. No love of learning is enkindled, 
no permanent impressions are made. It is needless 
to say that such a teacher is no inspirer; and it is 
distressing to feel that thousands of children are com- 
pelled to sit under such teaching and waste their 
precious days that might otherwise be rich in prep- 
aration for life. 

A school stands or falls if the recitation period is 
a success or a failure. This period is the intellectual 
crisis of the school day, and it is often the moral crisis. 
It determines not only whether the lesson of the day 
shall be of value, but whether a permanent interest 
in that study and in all studies shall be engendered. 
Hence in reaching the children this period cannot 
be overestimated. It behooves all teachers who seek 
to inspire their pupils to take careful thought as to 
how this phase of the school work may be made a 
potent minister to that end. 



Chapter IV 

REACHING TEE CHILDREN THROUGH THE SCHOOL 
LIBRARY 

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit em- 
balmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. — 
Milton. 

The true university of these days is a collection of books. — 
Carlyle. 

In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most 
precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. — Channing. 

When reading the lives of great men and women, one 
is struck by the fact that nearly all of them were in- 
spired more or less by a book or by several books. 
This is not at all surprising when one considers what 
a book really is. "Great books are the life-blood of 
master spirits," says Milton; and this sums up their 
value. By reading great books we gain this life-blood 
for ourselves through transfusion, mysterious, but real. 

If the newspapers were to announce some fine morn- 
ing that from ten to twelve that day a reception would 
be held at which the public were invited to meet 
William Shakespeare, Martin Luther, and Napoleon 
Bonaparte, all work would be dropped, and everybody 
would hasten to shake hands with these great men. 
If John Milton were to call on us and spend two hours 
in our sitting-room, we should consider ourselves hon- 
ored for life by the favor. As a matter of fact, Mil- 



THROUGH THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 19 

ton, Shakespeare and the rest are now in our homes. 
They are ready to talk to us night and day. They 
are never too tired to give us their best thoughts. 
And yet, instead of appreciating this wonderful op- 
portunity, we too often let them rest on the shelves 
and occupy ourselves in talking with commonplace 
people We "gossip with the stable-boy," when in 
our houses "kings and queens" are waiting for us, as 
John Ruskin puts it. 

Great books contain the finest things that the great- 
est minds in the history of the world have been able 
to put on paper. Certainly any one who has any 
serious purpose in life must feel the need of being in- 
structed by those greater than himself. Deliberately 
to put aside these priceless teachings as not worthy 
of time and attention is to arrogate to oneself a 
conceit that is hard to justify. What can be thought 
of the intellectual capacity of one who has time 
to read current fiction, but no time for the really 
great things in literature.? Likewise what shall we 
say of a person who spends hours learning to play a 
two-step on the piano, but has not a minute to give 
to the study of fine music? In too many departments 
of life we are guilty of false valuations. We count 
that which is worthless as more valuable than that 
which is precious. 

If the teacher is imbued with a sense of the value of 
literature, she will not only enrich her own life thereby 
but will use her utmost endeavor to spread its in- 
fluence among her pupils. This cannot be well done 
unless there is careful planning and forethought on 
the subject. In other words the teacher should pre- 



20 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

pare herself for the proper use of the school library 
in the same manner as she prepares herself to teach 
the regular lessons. The best results cannot be se- 
cured by a mere passing attention to the use of the 
library. There must be a study of each child's in- 
terests. There must be a knowledge of the contents 
of all the books in the library. There must be skill 
in inducing each child to read what is best for him. 
This is a task worthy of the best efforts of the teacher, 
and if accomplished it may result in more actual 
good to the child than all the rest of the school work 
combined. 

The following suggestions may assist teachers in 
this work: 

1. Impress on the pupils the value of good liter- 
ature, as indicated in the first part of this chapter. 

2. Show the effect of certain great books on indi- 
viduals. Lincoln as a boy had a library of surpass- 
ing value — the Bible, Shakespeare, Fox's Book of 
Martyrs, Weems's Life of Washington, Pilgrim's 
Progress, and ^Esop's Fables. These books gave him 
a matchless literary style. They filled his mind with 
noble thoughts, which not only stimulated ambition 
but kept out the mean and low. They built up in 
him a moral fiber that made his character great. 
Indeed, these books gave us Abraham Lincoln. With- 
out them, it is altogether likely that he would have 
remained a railsplitter. 

Benjamin Franklin was powerfully influenced by 
reading Cotton Mather's "Essays to Do Good." 

Loyola was a wild, profane, irreligious soldier. 
While in a hospital recovering from a wound he called 



THROUGH THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 21 

for a book to pass away the time. The only book to 
be found was the "Lives of the Saints." This book 
completely changed the life of Loyola. He became 
an enthusiastic Christian, and founded the order of 
Jesuits, whose influence has been great not only in 
religion, but in history. 

Martin Luther read the life of John Huss, the re- 
ligious reformer, and was thereby encouraged in his 
own career. 

Carey, the missionary, had his work marked out 
for him by reading the voyages of Captain Cook; 
while Wolff became a great missionary through read- 
ing the life of St. Francis Xavier. 

Henry Ward Beecher often said that he was never 
quite the same man again after he had read the works 
of John Ruskin. 

"My opportunities in youth for acquiring an edu- 
cation were limited," said Daniel Webster, "but I 
had the great good fortune of being well supplied 
with useful books, and these gave me my start in life." 

Henry Clay wrote, "A wise mother and good books 
enabled me to succeed in life. She was very poor, 
but never too poor to buy the proper books for her 
children." 

Alfieri was a great Italian poet; but he would have 
lived a commonplace Hfe had not his ambition been 
stirred by the reading of Plutarch. This remarkable 
book has inspired many of our great men, notably 
Montaigne, Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, 
Daniel Webster, Alexander Hamilton, Emerson, Phillips 
Brooks, Edward Everett, Lew Wallace, and William 
E. Gladstone. 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



3. Make frequent references to the books in the 
library. Draw illustrations therefrom. For instance, 
if a volume of Du Chaillu's African experiences is in 
the library, or Baker's "Cast Up by the Sea," and 
Africa is being studied in the geography class, the 
teacher can draw her illustrations from these books, 
and thus arouse a desire in the pupils to read them. 
In the same way Scott can be approached. In his- 
tory the field is much wider. If properly taught 
American history will at every point lead to an inter- 
est in the great men and women whose names are met 
on its pages, and a desire to read their biographies. 

The reading lesson is the medium of approaching 
good literature. One poem by Longfellow naturally 
leads to another by the same writer. A part of a 
long poem should stimulate pupils to read the whole. 
A professor of English once said that in his opinion 
the finest eulogy on music is to be found in the fol- 
lowing lines from Milton's Comus: 

"Scylla wept. 
And chid her barking waves into attention. 
And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause." 

This statement led at least some members of the 
class not only to seek a knowledge of Scylla and 
Charybdis, but to study the whole poem. 

If pupils are told that Dumas' '*The Three Mus- 
keteers" is the finest romance ever written, they will 
sit up and take notice. A prominent lawyer once 
stated that in his judgment the best thing Dickens 
ever wrote was "Martin Chuzzlewit." This led at least 
one of his hearers to read it at his first opportunity. 



THROUGH THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 23 

The expression of interest and enthusiasm on the 
part of the teacher is thus the means of arousing 
curiosity and interest in the books of the library. If 
these books are not read, it is usually due to the neg- 
lect of the teacher. It is demonstrable that nearly 
all pupils are interested in the things in which the 
teacher is interested. They will not have their hearts 
in anything in which the teacher does not have her 
heart. Perfunctory teaching never aroused an interest 
in anything. 

4. New books should be added to the library from 
time to time. This in itself arouses interest. If new 
books cannot be bought, exchanges can be made with 
neighboring schools, to the advantage of both. 

5. Use the library books for the reading class. If 
there is only one copy, let one pupil read several pages 
while the others listen. Then another pupil reads. 
Discussions can take place as needed. There is no 
better way of conducting reading lessons. It is not 
true that no reading class can be properly conducted 
unless each pupil has a book in his hand. 

6. The teacher herself should read good literature 
to the whole school. A teacher of third grade pupils 
whose ages averaged eight years, devoted the last 
fifteen minutes each school day to reading Wallace's 
"Ben-Hur" to them. Of course she could not read 
this book as printed, because the vocabulary is too 
difficult for pupils of that grade; but she told the 
story in her own words with the book open before 
her and she made judicious omissions. The pupils 
were aflame with interest in the story. The discus- 
sions that arose as to points in the story would 



24 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

have done credit to pupils many years older, and a 
profound impression for good was made on the class. 

If the teacher will read "Little Women" to her 
pupils, she will have no trouble inducing many to 
read "Little Men," "Old-fashioned Girl," and other 
books by Miss Alcott. 

By reading to older pupils portions of great poems, 
or great essays, or great orations, they may be led to 
further reading by themselves. 

It is plain, of course, that this reading by the 
teacher must be well done. If she reads in an un- 
impressive manner she kills interest. It were better 
she should not read at aU than that she should dis- 
gust pupils with literature. She must give careful 
forethought and preparation to the selection to be 
read, and must put her soul into the reading.' By 
so doing she will not only create an interest in good 
books, but will reach the children by giving them the 
ideals that are found in literature. 

The reading of library books by children has a cer- 
tain value that is often not appreciated or even con- 
sidered, and yet which is of prime importance. The 
child who is interested in reading books will stay at 
home in the evening and not waste his time running 
about on the streets with the inevitable undesirable 
companionship. This is a point lost sight of by those 
who advocate no home study for pupils. They seem 
to assume that all children have good homes in which 
all kinds of proper influences are placed around them. 
It may well be that no home study is the proper plan 
in such cases. But consider how many children do not 
have homes of that character — that the only books 



THROUGH THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 25 

in the home adapted to the child are those he brings 
from school — that there are no other influences that 
keep him indoors. Hence, out he goes on the street. 
The roistering life rapidly develops a distaste for the 
quiet necessary for reading. The child soon craves 
nothing but action and movement, and has no pa- 
tience for thinking. He therefore misses the great 
things of literature, and gets in their place the 
doubtful learning of the streets. 

The mind is always occupied by something. It is 
never wholly idle, even during sleep. Shakespeare has 
truly, even scientifically, said, "The mind grows by 
what it feeds on.'* We are familiar with the fact 
that the body is made up of the substances we eat 
and drink. The same is true of the mind. If it 
dwells on border ruffian life, there is great danger 
that the boy will become a bully. If it feeds on sen- 
sational city life, the boy is in a fair way to seek 
entrance into that life by proper means or improper. 
The girl who nourishes herself on the stories told of 
the gay life on Broadway will be a fit subject for sen- 
sational acts in her own circle of society, and may 
even give up her home for the allurements of the 
city. 

It is therefore plain that the child can be brought 
up to be a fine character if his thinking can be prop- 
erly directed; and since reading is so large a part of 
the child's thinking, the importance of supplying good 
books and arousing an interest in them is evident. 
When the home does nothing in this matter, the 
teacher must fill the need, or it will never be filled. 

It has been well said that there is a tide in the 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



affairs of boys and girls which, taken at the flood, leads 
on to fortune. That tide is very apt to come to them 
at the age of twelve to fourteen. It is then that char- 
acter begins to take on permanence. It is then that 
the imagination is especially active. If at this time 
the teacher gets the child to read the right book she 
may give direction to his whole life. One book may 
mean fortune, or it may mean shallows and miseries. 
It may mean the development of a man or woman of 
great usefulness in the world, or it may mean one 
who will contribute to the sum of its wickedness. 
From this aspect the neglect of the proper use of the 
library may have most serious consequences, while 
its proper use may be a service to humanity larger 
than any other the teacher may be able to render. 



Chapter V 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH THE 
PLAYGROUND 

Better a playground without a school, than a school without a 
playground. — Luther H. Gulick. 

The foregoing quotation by Dr. Gulick was made 
with particular regard to the value of the play- 
ground to pupils physically and socially. It is, how- 
ever, also of large importance in "getting hold" of 
some pupils whom the teacher cannot reach in the 
course of school work. It affords a fine opportunity, 
in addition to the physical benefits, for the study of 
the pupil by the teacher, and for the formation of 
a friendship, or a common interest, that may be 
indefinitely enlarged. 

It is an unfortunate fact that many teachers do not 
play with their pupils. They occupy their recesses by 
preparing work for the coming recitations, or they sit 
at their desks and read. Some go so far as to stand 
at the window and keep their eyes on the pupils while 
they play. All these methods are objectionable. The 
teacher needs exercise at recess as well as the pupils. 
Ten minutes of activity in the open air will brighten 
her spirits, keep her mind fresh and prevent her from 
getting "cranky." Watching the pupils for disci- 
plinary purposes creates a wrong feeling between 
teacher and pupils. 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



But if she joyously enters into the sports of the 
pupils, teaches them new games, and becomes one 
with them, she will get closer to their little hearts in 
a day than she otherwise can in a month. 

If any of her pupils have the habit of using rough 
language on the playground, all the teacher need do 
is to play with them. Of course there will be no 
roughness when she is there; and after a few days 
rough language will fall into disuse. The habit of 
using proper language will be confirmed; and thus a 
very great reform can be accomplished without a word 
being said by any one. How much better this is than 
to secure the same result through harsh measures, even 
if this were possible! 

A young man once took a position as principal, in 
a school of four teachers. Some of the largest pupils 
were more powerful physically than he was. But he 
had no trouble with them, largely because he played 
baseball with them at recess times. One morning 
there was some commotion among the pupils before 
school opened. On inquiry the principal learned that 
a new pupil was coming to school that morning, a 
large boy, the son of a saloon-keeper. This boy had 
a bad record, having been sent out of school the year 
before. The principal was apprehensive that trouble 
might arise; but at recess time, when he started the 
game with the boys, he learned that the newcomer 
was a "baseball fiend." The principal was pitching 
when the new boy came to bat. The boy evidently 
expected to have no trouble in hitting at least two 
bases, and rather laughed at the idea of a teacher 
playing baseball. But the principal was on his met- 



THROUGH THE PLAYGROUND 29 

tie, and the boy, to his surprise, struck out. That 
was the beginning of a wholesome respect on the part 
of the pupil for his principal. They talked baseball 
together, formed a comradeship on the playground, 
and had no trouble whatever during the school year. 
A similar influence, though not so marked, was exerted 
on th3 other boys. It is safe to say that that prin- 
cipal's ability and willingness to enter into the sports 
of the pupils was a greater asset in disciplining his 
school than all other qualities combined. 

In our rural schools especially, children know but 
very few games to play. They do not have half as 
much fun as they might if they were taught how to 
play many more games. It is very important that 
children should play. Up to the age of six the whole 
business of the child is to play; and throughout his 
school career it should be a prominent part of the 
school course. The teacher should therefore not con- 
fine her thought and activity to the work side alone, 
but should also teach the child out of doors in his 
pleasures. 

It is a well known fact that a child's real character 
does not reveal itself when he is hemmed in by rules 
and authority; but he shows his true make-up when 
he is free to do as he pleases. Therefore the play- 
ground is a great revealer of character, because on 
the playground much of the restriction of the school- 
room is removed. 

A visitor to a school once saw a fine dismissal of 
pupils. They were on the second floor; and as the 
line was passing out he noticed a boy, larger than 
othersj standing at the stairway and controlling the 



30 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

whole line, taking special pains to see that the little 
children were properly protected. On mentioning this 
fact to the teacher (who, by the way, was not in the 
hallway), the teacher smiled, and said: "The first 
day I opened school this same boy planted himself 
at the foot of the steps, and tripped every little child 
he could. However, I said nothing about it, but 
studied the boy. I noticed that on the playground 
he was a leader; and I determined to take full advan- 
tage of his leadership. 

"At the end of the first week of school I had a 
talk with him. I told him that I was concerned about 
the safety of the children as they passed down the 
stairs — that he was the largest boy in school, and 
that I should like to have him help me out by assum- 
ing entire charge of the dismissal. He agreed. We 
discussed the best plan for regulating the dismissal, 
and the following Monday he took charge. No one 
could possibly be more careful of the proper discharge 
of his duties than he is. Instead of being a source of 
trouble, he is now my right hand man." 

Not only is the teacher's influence strong to banish 
rough language from the playground, but in a posi- 
tive way pupils may be taught many valuable lessons 
through the example and precept of the teacher. For 
instance, there is a disposition on the part of some 
pupils to claim they were "safe" when they know 
they were "out," and by vociferating and bullying 
they sometimes maintain their claim. By and by the 
general idea spreads that any claim is proper if it can 
be successfully asserted. This is the very abdication 
of honesty. It is training in dishonesty. From the 



THROUGH THE PLAYGROUND 31 



playground these pupils go into life with the spirit of 
getting the better of others if they can regardless of 
right and wrong. Thus a most mischievous idea is 
developed. 

If, however, the teacher is "out," he at once yields 
the point. Even if the umpire calls him "safe," he 
would do well to say, "No, I was out," unless the 
decision was very close. Then he may take occa- 
sion during school hours to discuss the moral point 
involved, and show pupils how dishonesty in play 
is just as reprehensible as dishonesty off the play- 
ground. 

He can also very effectively teach generosity and 
politeness. If there is a question as to which of two 
games is to be played, the teacher should yield his 
preference. If a disagreement arises as to which of 
two sides is right in a contention, unless some prin- 
ciple is involved, the teacher shows that the gentle- 
manly way is to give the privilege to the other side. 
Scrupulous fairness to an opponent is a most valuable 
mental habit; and nowhere can this be better em- 
phasized than in the situations that arise in all con- 
tests. Thus may selfishness be dealt a strong blow; 
and thus may the altruistic virtues be trained and 
strengthened, to the end that the finer traits of char- 
acter may be developed, and the child be fitted to be 
a worthy member of society. 

If you want to win the heart of a boy, join him in 
his play. 

The old idea of a school was monarchical. The 
teacher was the autocrat and the pupils were the sub- 
jects. It was beneath his dignity to mingle on even 



3^ REACHING THE CHILDREN 

terms with adults, to say nothing of children. Obe- 
dience, prompt and unquestioned, was his demand. 
Pupils were not supposed to think — he did all the 
thinking for them. 

The modern idea of a school is that of the kinder- 
garten — a democracy. In a true kindergarten the 
teachers play with the children, sit on the same seats, 
and are simply leaders and directors. That idea 
should pervade the entire system. Children however 
young have individualities that should be recognized 
and respected. Hence, under the democratic idea, 
the teacher will mingle on even terms with pupils and 
parents, showing no more dignity than any other per- 
son should properly show under the same circum- 
stances. Thus he will reach the pupils through the 
strong force of mutual regard and good will. 



Chapter VI 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH INDUSTRIAL 
TRAINING 

All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble. 
— Caeltle. 

The demand of today is that the course of study 
and the instruction in our schools shall be related to 
the needs of everyday life. There was a time when 
the course of study was purely literary. It was 
thought that industrial subjects are useless for pur- 
poses of mental training. This was in accordance 
with the teachings of the old psychology. 

It is held by some educators that, as far as train- 
ing the mind is concerned, the study of agriculture 
is as valuable as the study of Greek, and is of much 
more usefulness in practical life. Hence the very 
rapid movement of late years toward a decrease in 
the number of literary subjects and an increase in the 
number of industrial subjects. 

However, entirely apart from the practical bearing 
of industrial subjects, they have a value in reaching 
certain children that cannot be overestimated. 

Dr. Bryan, in his fascinating book, "The Basis of 
Practical Teaching," devotes one chapter to "The 
Stimulus of Success," in which he shows that in order 
to secure a basis for advancement in a child's progress 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



it is necessary to find something that he can do well. 
From that as a point of departure he will be stimu- 
lated to doing other things well. It is immaterial 
what this acquirement may be — whether skill in a 
certain study, or in a certain game — the essential 
point is that the pupil must excel in something; and 
without such excellence but little can be done for the 
pupil. 

Dr. Bryan shows that if two problems are assigned 
to a class, one easy and one difficult, the chances of 
getting both problems right are much greater if the 
easy one is first attempted. In the one case, success 
in the easy instills confidence for the difficult; in the 
other, failure in the difficult unfits the student for 
success with the easy. 

In the freshman class of a prominent high school 
near New York was a boy whose work in Latin was 
exceedingly poor. He happened, however, to be the 
only freshman on the high school baseball team; and 
in an important contest in which his team lost by a 
score of two to one, he was responsible for the one 
run, having made a three base hit and scored on an 
error. He was the hero of that game. 

His Latin teacher said to him on Monday morning, 
"James, I understand you covered yourself with glory 
in the game last Saturday. That is fine; but really 
a person should not be a star in only one line. Why 
don't you make a star of yourself in this Latin class 
too?" The idea appealed to the boy, and for the rest 
of the year his work in Latin showed remarkable im- 
provement. 

There are some excellent pupils who are not book- 



THROUGH INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 35 

minded, but hand-minded. They fail in the literary 
side of their school life. They cannot read well, nor 
write well, nor do any other of the regular studies 
well. They have fallen (or come) into the habit of 
failure, which is exactly the opposite of the habit of 
success, and leads in the opposite direction. Such 
pupils are apt to be several years older than the 
others in the class, and are regarded as backward 
pupils; and what is much more unfortunate, they 
regard themselves as backward pupils. 

Now these pupils may potentially have the elements 
of good citizenship to a higher degree than others 
whose standing in regular studies is very high, but 
they have not been reached. Books do not make 
an appeal to them. Give them tools and wood or 
set them to work on a garden plot, or put them 
behind a team of horses, and their ability may at once 
become manifest. Hence the value of manual training 
in reaching pupils. 

An interesting point here is that this is the best way 
of making these pupils proficient in the regular studies. 
It has often been noticed that if a pupil who does 
poor work in his classroom, is given work in manual 
training, he will show instant improvement in his 
other studies also. Furthermore, he is very likely to 
improve in his conduct. 

In some schools certain pupils who are in too low 
a grade to join the manual training classes clamor 
for the privilege, and why? Because they feel that 
here is work they can do; and as all the rest of their 
school work consists of what they cannot do, their 
school life is dreary drudgery from morning to night. 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



No wonder they drop out. Under such conditions 
school holds nothing for them. They are wasting 
their time, and are getting into bad intellectual and 
moral habits. 

Some years ago we prided ourselves on the dem- 
ocracy of our public school system. We felt that birth, 
nationality, wealth, gave no advantage to one pupil 
over another, as far as the public schools were con- 
cerned. All pupils had an equal chance. We gave 
the same opportunity to all. 

When, however, through the beneficent results of 
child study we became sensible of what we had always 
known before, that children differ from one another, 
we began to realize that what is a good chance for 
one is not necessarily a good chance for another. 
In other words, the same opportunity for all does not 
in the least imply an equal opportunity for all. We 
gave a fine opportunity for the book-minded child, 
but none at all for the hand-minded child. We gave 
many chances to the literary pupil, but none to the 
industrial pupil. The latter was never reached, be- 
cause we violated the psychological principle that 
the child cannot be influenced through what he does 
not like, or through what does not seem valuable to 
him. 

It follows then that a teacher should find for every 
pupil something he can do well. If this cannot be 
found in his regular studies, it must be sought in the 
special subjects. If it cannot be found there, it naust 
be sought on the playground. If not in any of these 
places, it may be found in the home or in the store, 
or on the farm. Something must be found that the 



THROUGH INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 37 

child does well. Nothing can be done for him other- 
wise. How important, therefore, that the teacher 
should study her pupils on the playground, and should 
become familiar with their homes; and how important 
also that she should fit herself to teach the manual 
arts, so that no pupil may be lost through her inef- 
ficiency. 



Chapter VII 

REACHINQ THE CHILDREN THROUGH SELF- 
GOVERNMENT 

In the supremacy of self-control consists one of the perfections 
of the ideal man, — Herbert Spencer. 
I will be lord over myself. — Goethe. 

It has already been stated that the central prin- 
ple of education is the self-activity of the child. As 
far as the government of a child is concerned, there 
is no growth in the power of self-control except in so 
far as the child controls himself. No self-control has 
ever been developed by outside control. The latter 
may produce obedience, which is desirable, but it 
does not produce self-control. 

A child who is not permitted to make any choices 
for himself, but is directed in all he does by fond par- 
ents or teachers, is bound to grow up a weakling. 
He can grow in the power of self-control only by the 
choices he makes for himself, and not by choices that 
are made for him by others. Hence the great mistake 
made by excessive supervision of children by parents 
and teachers. 

Emerson in his essay on Self -Reliance says, "Self- 
trust is the essence of heroism." Again he says 
"Trust thyself! Every heart vibrates to that iron 
string." If a person cannot accomplish much unless 



THROUGH SELF-GOVERNMENT 39 

he has trust in himself, he cannot expect others to 
accomplish much if he does not trust them. Hence 
as far as the individual is concerned he must trust 
himself, and as far as others are concerned he must 
also trust them. 

The main reason why children can be reached 
through self-government is because this method im- 
plies a recognition of the essential manhood or woman- 
hood of each child. The glory of the adult is liberty 
to do as he pleases. Every time a boy does what 
he pleases he is assuming the prerogative of a man; 
and as every boy's constant desire is to become a 
man, the more he does what he pleases the more he 
is acting like a man. 

Therefore in no other way can the teacher reach 
the pupils more effectively than by assuming that 
they are men and women and treating them accord- 
ingly. Of course this doctrine must be applied with 
sense, otherwise it will lead to anarchy. But as a 
principle it is correct. 

Edward Everett Hale says that when he and his 
brothers were still boys their father treated them as 
if they were men — took them into his confidence in 
business affairs, sent them to the bank, gave them 
important commissions to transact — and as a result 
they rose to the occasion. Dr. Hale stated in his 
mature years that this was one of the finest things 
in his training. 

Some teachers years ago conducted their schools on 
the basis that the teacher is everything and the pupils 
are nothing. The school was run largely on the basis 
of the teacher's comfort and convenience. Now we 



40 REACHING TEE CHILDREN 

believe that the interests of pupils are paramount, and 
the teacher merely a servant — not at all a menial 
position, for did not Christ say that the greatest 
should be the servant of the others? In a democracy 
the child must be trained for self-government; and 
therefore the important matter in the schoolroom is 
the child's comfort, the child's activity, the child's 
welfare, not those of the teacher. 

It is a well known fact that a teacher can get little 
children to do almost anything she pleases by sug- 
gestion, and that commands are seldom necessary. 
Suppose for example that the pupils have the habit of 
leaving their seats at any time, and the teacher 
wishes to check this habit. She can say, *'I don't 
want anybody to leave his seat without permission." 
This may cure the fault. The pupils may obey 
through fear of the consequences. 

Another teacher will discuss the matter with the 
pupils. She will say, "Pupils, do you think it is best 
for the class for pupils to leave their seats whenever 
they please?" The pupils will answer, "No." Then 
the teacher will say, "Do you think if we were all to 
try real hard we could stay in our seats until recess 
time?" The pupils will eagerly respond in the affirm- 
ative. Then the teacher will say, "Very well, now we 
will all try to remember." And there is little doubt 
that the end will be gained by the pupils' participation. 
This is the vital difference between the two plans 
suggested. It is the first step in the training of 
children to become completely self-governing. 

To state the principle once more we may say that 
everything in the school life that requires action on 



THROUGH SELF-GOVERNMENT 41 

the part of pupils should be done through the initia- 
tive of the pupils or through their willing assent to 
the suggestion of the teacher. 

There are well known high schools and grammar 
schools in which all government is carried on by pupil 
control in imitation of a borough or city government. 
Officers are elected and a constitution adopted under 
which the whole school is conducted. This gives 
excellent practice in the duties of citizenship. What 
concerns us, however, is the fact that by this means 
pupils feel a sense of dignity and responsibility that 
makes them thoughtful. They act from worthy motives. 

There are other schools in which the spirit of self- 
government exists without any organization. Each 
pupil understands that he is expected to do the right 
thing, and is trusted to do so until he proves himself 
unworthy. 

One such school consisted of about seventy-five 
high school pupils and fifty seventh and eighth grade 
pupils. These pupils were told in assembly one morn- 
ing by their principal that he considered them all old 
enough to do what is right, and that he would trust 
them in all respects. He required no written excuses 
for absence or tardiness. If a pupil needed to leave 
school before its close he went out just as a grown 
person would do. If the principal was called out of a 
classroom he would appoint a pupil to continue the 
recitation, or the class would select one of their 
number to teach. If a teacher was absent the prin- 
cipal would appoint a pupil teacher for each class. 
This was, however, almost entirely confined to the 
high school classes. 



42 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

These pupils are now men and women. It could 
be shown, not only from the observations of the teach- 
ers at the time, but by the testimony of these men 
and women that the classes and the whole school were 
managed with dignity, and that the appeal to their 
manhood and womanhood was of lasting value. 

In this school the question always was, "How would 
right minded men and women act?" This was the 
standard for the acts of the pupils. Of course there 
were occasional offenses. These pupils were not per- 
fect. Neither are men and women perfect. But if 
something improper occurred, and the principal said 
to the assembled students, "I wish the person who 
did this would come to the office after dismission,'* 
the person invariably came and confessed. In two 
years only one pupil failed to meet this test. Thus 
as far as possible these pupils were precipitated into 
adult life of a high order, they lived and moved in an 
atmosphere of moral dignity, they gained fine views 
of life, they had practice in noble living. And many 
a pupil who could not be reached by threats or pun- 
ishment was reached, or rather reached himself, by 
this simple appeal to his better nature. 

When a pupil has committed an offense, it is ex- 
ceedingly important that he should assent to the 
punishment if there be punishment. If the teacher 
prescribes a penalty that the pupil considers unjust, 
it will do little good to the pupil. The resentment 
aroused in his breast by what he considers unfair 
treatment drives out the effectiveness of the punish- 
ment. His heart will be unchanged. 

Hence it is often wise to ask a pupil whether he 



THROUGH SELF-GOVERNMENT 43 

considers a given penalty just, or even to let him fix 
his own penalty. 

In a certain school a high school pupil whose con- 
duct was excellent in the main, was constantly in 
trouble with one of her teachers. There was lack of 
adjustment between them, which ended one day in 
the dismissal of the girl from the classroom. When 
she came to the office, the principal said, 

"What can I do for you?" 

"Mrs. Blank sent me out of the classroom!" 

"What.f^ sent you out of the classroom?" 

"Yes." 

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" 

No reply. 

"There is something wrong," continued the prin- 
cipal, "and it should be made right." 

"Well, I know what I ought to do," said the girl. 

"Are you willing to do it?" asked the principal. 

No reply. 

"If you are willing to go back to the class and do 
what you think you ought to do to make this matter 
right, I shall be entirely satisfied, and shall not even 
ask you what it is." 

The student agreed. The principal never learned 
what she did; but from that day there was no more 
friction between that pupil and her teacher. It 
was a case of complete seK-government, of self- 
conquest. 

There are teachers who are hasty in demanding 
apologies from their pupils. This requirement is the 
source of so much anxiety, perplexity, and hard feeling 
that a principal would be justified in forbidding any 



44 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

teacher to require an apology without his consent. 
Too often the demand for an apology is made when 
the teacher is annoyed. There is not always a cool, 
careful investigation of the case before sentence is 
passed. The pupil is sent out of the room at once — 
he cannot be readmitted without an apology; and 
this ultimatum is made before the other pupils. 

But the principal finds the pupil unwilling to make 
an apology because he feels that none is required by 
the facts — that he was not guilty as charged, or at 
least that there were mitigating circumstances — 
others just as guilty as he — that would seem to mod- 
ify the offense. The principal knows very well that 
an apology forced under such circumstances is merely 
a matter of words, and that it does no good. He 
wants to sustain the teacher, and yet he hesitates to 
compel an apology especially because he feels that the 
teacher was hasty. Finally the parents come in and 
insist that rather than have their child apologize they 
will take him out of school, or bring the case before 
the board of education. There is more excitement and 
disturbance in these apology cases than in many 
others that might be mentioned. 

The teacher should never prescribe penalties at 
once. She should never at the moment lay down the 
conditions of readmission to her class. She may in- 
deed dismiss the pupil from the room, but her hands 
should be free to prescribe what penalty is deemed 
suitable after an unbiased investigation. Neither has 
she any right to tie the hands of the principal. If 
she lays down her conditions in advance, he must 
either concur in them or overrule them; and in his 



THROUGH SELF-GOVERNMENT 45 

anxiety to avoid the latter alternative he may be 
unjust to the pupil. 

The idea of the self-governed school is that the 
pupil should never apologize to anybody unless he 
feels that he ought. Forced apologies are not only 
ineJBPective but positively harmful. Men and women 
never make them; and it is a blow to the dignity of 
the child to compel him to do that which he resents. 
Outside control never reached a child unless it led 
in the end to self-control. 



Chapter VIII 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH THE PRIVATE 
CONVERSATION 

When all is done, the help of good counsel is that which setteth 
business straight. — Bacon. 

Some years ago books on school management class- 
ified the several steps to be taken in the treatment of 
offenders in school. Among the first suggestions was 
that private reproof should precede public reproof — 
that a pupil should not be criticised before his school- 
mates until he had first been criticised privately 
without avail. 

This is good sense, and good psychology. We may 
go further and say that there are very few cases in- 
deed in which public reproof is justifiable. The school- 
room is for study, not for lecturing. To upbraid a 
pupil before the class not only harasses the feelings 
of all the pupils but it takes the time scheduled for 
work. 

Public reproof seldom reaches anybody except to 
mortify him. It does not give him higher motives, 
nor nobler resolves. On the contrary, if a pupil is 
held up before his classmates as a reprobate, he is 
very apt to assume and carry out the role thus 
assigned him. 

Strictly speaking, private reproof is not a very good 



THROUGH THE PRIVATE CONVERSATION 47 

term to use. In many cases no reproof at all is neces- 
sary. A mere conversation or talk in private may 
suffice -— nay, more often reaches the child than pri- 
vate reproof. It is not true that every dereliction must 
be punished. It is not true that all pupils sometimes 
need a scolding. What is true is that pupils who 
have gone wrong must be led to go right; and this 
can be done much better by persuasion than by 
criticism. 

A superintendent once asked a teacher in a rural 
school to call out and teach her lowest class in read- 
ing. She summoned the class, and three pupils came 
forward, two about six years old and one about ten. 
Before beginning the recitation the teacher said in a 
loud voice (the superintendent was in the rear of the 
room), "Mr. Blank, this large pupil is the most stupid 
boy I have ever seen. I have tried my best, and can't 
get anything into him." When the superintendent 
had completed his visit, he spoke to the teacher 
about the boy. He said, "Don't you think that boy 
felt hurt to be held up as a dunce before his super- 
intendent in the presence of his classmates .f*" She 
said, "Oh, no, that didn't make any difference." 
"But," said the superintendent, "if at our next county 
institute I should ask you to stand up before all the 
assembled teachers, and should state thus publicly 
that you are the dullest teacher I have ever seen — 
how would you like that.^" "Oh, that's something 
entirely different," was her reply. 

"Not at all," said the superintendent, "that boy 
has feelings just as you have. To be pronounced a 
hopeless dunce before his superintendent and his class- 



48 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

mates was a mortification for which he will never for- 
give you, and it was an injury from which he may 
never recover." 

Go into many schoolrooms, and you will find too 
much public criticism, too much fault-finding, too 
much correction, too much projection of superiority 
on the part of the teacher. Every school should be a 
cooperative society — everybody working together for 
the good of the whole and of each individual — under 
the guidance of its most mature member, the teacher. 

It is not necessary for the teacher to wait until 
some offence has been committed before she has a 
private conversation with her pupils. After the first 
week of school she would do well to select a pupil and 
make an appointment to have a talk with him alone. 
In this talk she should strive to gain his friendship — 
to study his disposition, to learn about his aims in life 
and his conditions. He will reveal himself to her in 
private, whereas he would say little or nothing in 
public. The teacher who asks a pupil questions before 
his classmates in regard to his personal life shows bad 
manners herself and violates the sanctity of privacy. 
Even in the private conversation her inquiries have 
natural limits. But if she shows good judgment a 
bond of sympathy will spring up that will go far to 
prevent the occurrence of any trouble in the future. 
Moreover, she can give him some bits of advice — 
not too much, for this conversation should not be a 
confessional — and can learn wherein he needs help. 

When offences arise in the schoolroom, nothing 
should be said about them if possible; but some time 
during the day the offender should be asked privately 



THROUGH THE PRIVATE CONVERSATION 49 

to remain after school. Then the teacher should take 
him to a private room, or exclude everybody from her 
classroom, and in a calm and indeed sympathetic 
manner should inquire into the circumstances of the 
offence. The pupil should be given a full opportunity 
to state his case. The teacher should not **go at 
him" in a critical spirit, but in the spirit of an in- 
quirer. Then she should show the pupil just why the 
act was wrong, after which, if he sees it, she can 
usually count on his amendment without scolding or 
even without his making a formal promise. 

Teachers should remember, and freely admit, jQrst, 
that we ask too much when we expect pupils to be 
perfect; and secondly, that we adults are not perfect. 
The teacher who governs her pupils on the basis of 
what they ought to be is not as wise as she who takes 
as her basis the pupils as they are. Teachers who say, 
"Pupils ought not to have a false code of honor," 
should be met by the statement, "You and I should 
also not have a false code in anything." 

In a certain high school the pupils were requested 
to describe the best teacher they had ever had, and 
tell why they liked her. When these papers came in, 
it was interesting to see that in a large majority of 
instances the statement was made, "I liked her be- 
cause she was fair." Children have a very keen sense 
of justice and injustice; and though a strong teacher 
can stifie the manifestation of their resentment when 
she is unjust to them, she cannot smother the feel- 
ing, and she can never reach them as long as that 
feeling persists. 

In the private conversation the teacher must show 



50 REACHING TEE CHILDREN 

a spirit of absolute fairness toward the pupil. She 
must therefore be in a proper frame of mind when the 
interview takes place. If she is to act as judge she 
must be as impartial and unprejudiced as a judge. 
Hence an interview regarding an offence should in 
some cases not be held until a day or more has 
elapsed — not until the teacher feels that she can 
administer exact justice. When the pupil can feel in 
the atmosphere of the room that he will get a "square 
deal," conditions are appropriate for a valuable inter- 
change of ideas. 

Mr. Edward Howard Griggs, in his book on "Moral 
Education," has pointed out that treatment of a pupil 
for an offence should follow the method of a physi- 
cian treating a patient. The interview should be 
private. The teacher should inquire into the history 
of the pupil to see whether there is anything in his 
ancestry to account for the trouble. Then she should 
inquire into the conditions that brought about the 
offence. Next there should be an examination of the 
offence itself. Lastly, there should be such treatment 
as will cure the offence. 

Too often teachers make no diagnosis of a case, 
but prescribe purely on the basis of external symptoms. 
And too often they use the patent medicine treat- 
ment, namely that a certain remedy is always good for 
all people. Of course we know that rarely does the 
wise physician prescribe the same remedy for the 
same disease. It all depends on the condition of 
the patient. 

Just as a physician cannot reach the seat of a dis- 
ease without a diagnosis, and just as he must give 



THROUGH THE PRIVATE CONVERSATION 51 

individual prescriptions for the same disease, so the 
teacher cannot reach the pupils unless she has ade- 
quate knowledge of the pupils' heredity, environment, 
physical and mental make up, and unless she gives 
such treatment as will be exactly adapted to the 
individual under consideration. 

When a pupil appears before the teacher to answer 
for an offence, the teacher should remember the many 
functions in which she is clothed. Probably she made 
the laws which have been broken. Now she is not 
only judge, but also jury, counsel for the prosecution, 
and executioner. Against this formidable array of 
functions there is only the ten year old boy. A judge 
must be absolutely unbiased. He must see that the 
prisoner gets all his rights — gets a fair trial in all 
respects. Is the teacher always as unbiased against 
an offending pupil as is a judge against a man on trial 
for murder .f^ Having in the nature of things so many 
roles, the teacher would do well to assume one more, 
namely, counsel for the defence! Give the boy a fair 
chance to say what he can in his favor. If he can 
bring any witnesses to assist him, by all means let 
them be summoned. Furthermore, counsel for the 
defence would bring out in court the extenuating cir- 
cumstances — a hot temper, poor home surroundings, 
bad associates, immaturity, the probability of refor- 
mation if sentence were suspended. Let these points 
be brought out by the teacher in the boy's behalf. 
And just as the prisoner in court is presumed to be 
innocent until he is proven guilty, so the youthful 
offender must not be prejudged. 

The purpose of this endeavor to be fair is not 



52 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

only that justice may prevail, but that the pupil shall 
recognize in the teacher a friend who is fair, and who 
is wiUing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then 
the teacher can reach the pupil who heretofore may 
have closed his heart to her. 

The desire of the teacher to be fair in these pri- 
vate conversations is often sadly embarrassed by a 
pupil's previous bad reputation. A principal was in 
his office one morning when a teacher, looking out of 
the window, exclaimed, "Here comes Charley Blank! 
He was expelled from school, then expelled from the 
navy, and now he is coming back to school!" 

The principal had never met this young man, who 
was then eighteen; but immediately he put him down 
in his own mind as a pupil who needed watching. 
To every movement the principal attached signifi- 
cance. Very soon the principal reprimanded him in 
the presence of the pupils. A few days later the boy 
went home because a classmate had been sent home. 
He was called in for a private conversation. The 
principal began in a severe tone. The boy answered 
coolly, indeed manfully. He explained that, in the 
navy, the code of honor demanded that if one were 
punished the others should "take their medicine" too. 
In that conversation the principal learned that 
Charley was not wholly bad — that he had rather 
low ideals, to be sure; not always a sense of the fit- 
ness of things, but that he meant fairly well. The 
upshot of that conversation was the formation of a 
better understanding, and indeed of a friendship that 
led to "smooth sailing" as long as the young man 
continued in school. 



THROUGH THE PRIVATE CONVERSATION 53 

The new teacher should as much as possible close 
her ears to unfavorable information about any of her 
pupils. It will inevitably affect her attitude toward 
a pupil if she has formed a prejudice against him in 
advance. If a patient goes from one physician to 
another, the latter always makes his diagnosis for 
himsnif , and does not accept that made by the former. 
Every pupil coming to school should be admitted with 
a clean slate. 

In some graded schools teachers make notes in re- 
gard to their children during the year, and send them 
to the next teacher in the fall. This is an excellent 
plan provided there are no notes reflecting on the 
pupils* conduct. Since so much of misconduct is 
caused by lack of adjustment, it may be that the new 
teacher, if unhampered, may be able in her way to 
make the adjustment at once. At any rate, the pupil 
does not get a fair chance with the new teacher if 
his past offences are spread out before her eyes at the 
beginning of the term. 

It is thus plain that the private conversation, con- 
ducted with judicial fairness and with sympathy, is 
one of the most effective means of reaching the pupils 
that the teacher can employ. Whatever power there 
may be of mind over mind is here active. The ad- 
mitted power of sympathy is here exerted. No better 
conditions for influencing pupils can be secured than 
the privacy of this conference; and the effect is most 
powerful because it flows from heart to heart. 



Chapter IX 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH 
ENCOURAGEMENT 

And many strokes, though with a little ax. 
Hew down and fell the hardest timbered oak. 

— Shakespeare. 

Imagination rules the world! — Napoleon. 

I can do whatever I will to do. — "Stonewall" Jackson. 

The word encouragement literally means "putting 
heart into.'* To encourage some one is to put heart 
into him. A person is (discouraged when his heart is 
out of him. We say of an ambitious, rising young 
man, "His heart is in his work"; while we say of a 
person who is failing, "His heart is not in his work." 

Just as no adult succeeds whose heart is not in his 
work, so no pupil succeeds if his heart is not in his 
work. A child does not win at play if his heart is not 
in it. A baseball team is beaten before the game 
starts if the players are disheartened. There is not a 
walk in life above pure drudgery in which success is 
not conditioned on the amount of "heart" that is put 
into one's work. A high order of intellect without 
"heart" cannot equal the accomplishment of a lower 
order of intellect plus "heart." 

If a pupil moves along in his studies in a careless 
or perfunctory manner, and the teacher succeeds by 



THROUGH ENCOURAGEMENT 55 

some means in putting "heart" into him, it trans- 
forms his hfe. He becomes energetic, alert, eager, 
ambitious. His class standing rises rapidly. His de- 
portment will be entirely satisfactory. In other 
words, if the teacher has reached the pupil, she has 
performed for him the greatest service that one 
person can render to another. 

Some years ago a boy in a certain high school was 
a year behind his class. His record up to the end of 
the second year was one of great carelessness in work 
and in conduct. The principal felt, however, that 
this boy was naturally bright. He had several pri- 
vate interviews with him. One day he said, "Charles, 
you are bright enough to go to college. You have no 
means of your own, and there are no means in your 
family; but I know a man who sings in the same 
choir with you, who has means, and would very likely 
be willing to send you through college if I could go 
to him and vouch for your excellence as a student 
and your worth as a young man. But I suppose you 
realize that at present I cannot do this." 

"I know you can't," said the boy. 

"But I should like to do so," said the principal. 

This was in June. Nothing more was said until the 
fall. Then the head teacher in the high school came 
to the principal one day in great amusement, and said, 
"What do you think — Charles says he is going to 
do two years' work in one, and graduate next June!" 

"Well," said the principal, "Let him run his head 
against the proposition and see what comes of it." 

Charles took five studies in class, and was given 
permission to pursue three at his home and take 



5Q REACHING THE CHILDREN 

monthly tests therein. This was a heavy program; 
but what was the surprise of the teachers when month 
after month this boy stood very high not only in his 
class work but in his monthly tests in all subjects; 
and to cap the climax he took two studies beyond the 
requirement, and passed in them also. In one year 
this boy, who had formerly been so indifferent, passed 
with credit in ten subjects whereas the regular number 
for one year was only four. And as a by-product 
his conduct, which had formerly been very unsatis- 
factory, was now equal to the best in the class. 

It remains to be said that the boy was sent to col- 
lege by the method first suggested by the principal; 
and while the death of his benefactor cut his course 
short before graduation, yet that young man has made 
a success in engineering work, and is a good citizen. 

Teachers know what a good effect on them a kind 
word from their superintendent or principal produces. 
If he visits their rooms several times a week for a 
year and never expresses satisfaction with what he 
sees, the teacher is in a state of uncertainty and per- 
plexity. She does not feel comfortable. She cannot 
pursue her work with assurance. Altogether she is 
not in a proper frame of mind to do her best work. 

The same is true of a pupil. He, as well as the 
teacher, is hungry for the kind word. The "well 
done" of the teacher is just as important to him as is 
the "well done'* of the superintendent to the teacher. 
It puts "heart" into him. He feels that the teacher 
appreciates his efforts and his success, all of which 
will stimulate him to greater exertion. 

It is a curious fact that in many schools the pupils 



THROUGH ENCOURAGEMENT 57 

who least need encouragement get the most, while 
those who need it most get the least. A child whose 
work is well-nigh perfect already has her heart in it. 
She is already full of zeal. But the poor little fellow 
who is at the foot of the class seldom gets the en- 
couraging word though he is in desperate need of it, 
and his salvation may depend upon it. 

The reader will at once think, "How is it possible 
to encourage a boy when there is no work that is 
worthy of commendation?" There are several ways 
of approaching the matter. In the first place, he 
may be trying in some subject. If so, his effort is 
worthy of praise. He may even show flashes of good 
work which may be properly appreciated. He may 
excel in manual training or in baseball. Whatever 
it is, the teacher should take occasion to mention 
it before the school. 

In the second place, the pupil may have received a 
mark of twenty in arithmetic last week, and forty 
this week. Here is an improvement of one hundred 
per cent — a remarkable step in advance. This is 
certainly worthy of commendation. It is an occasion 
for killing the fatted calf. 

In the third place, the teacher may put "heart" 
into this pupil by telling him of other persons who 
stood very low in their classes at school, yet who 
afterwards became famous, such as Isaac Newton, 
Walter Scott, and others. And the teacher may say, 
"You can do precisely as much as they did as stu- 
dents. You can do the best you can. No man living 
or dead ever did more. Put forth your best efforts, 
and you will win at last." By these three means 



58 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

and others like them there is an ample field for the 
encouragement of dull pupils. 

When Benjamin West, the great painter, was a little 
boy, his mother placed in his care his baby brother 
while she left the house on a matter of business. 
When she returned an hour later she found that Ben- 
jamin had amused himself in the interim by drawing 
on paper a picture of the baby as it lay in the cradle. 
The mother was delighted, and so expressed herself. 
In after years he said, "My mother's kiss made me a 
painter." 

All experience says to superintendents in their re- 
lations with teachers, "Find something to praise!'* 
All experience says to teachers in their relations with 
pupils, "Find something to praise!" Many a teacher 
who has great difficulty with her classes has been 
saved by a superintendent who has said, "I have 
absolute confidence that you have it in you to succeed. 
You are weak in these several respects, but who is 
not weak in some respects? Now pluck up your 
courage and go at things with confidence. You may 
not succeed at once, but if you only get a start now 
and improve on it you will be going in the right 
direction." And if this teacher does give signs of im- 
provement, and the superintendent speaks of them 
and says, "That's the way!" she will go forward on 
the wings of his encouragement. 

Even more can be done in this way with a dull 
pupil than with a teacher. He will do nothing unless 
he has the confidence of somebody. Criticism will only 
confirm his habit of failure. Demotion or punishment 
will not lift him up. Driving seldom is of any value. 



THROUGH ENCOURAGEMENT 59 

There must be some force that pulls him upward, and 
that force is encouragement. 

A business man prominent in three states said not 
long ago: "While I live, I shall never forget the debt 

I owe to Mr. , an obscure country teacher. As 

a child I stammered. When I entered school, the 
pupils made fun of me. When I rose to read, I be- 
came so self-conscious that I could not read at all. 
After some years of misery, with no improvement, 

j^Y. came to be our teacher. The first time I 

tried to read for him I began to stammer badly; but 
in a kindly voice he told me to wait a moment, see 
clearly what I wanted to read, and not to hurry. 
With these directions there was at once a great im- 
provement. He kept me after school by myself and 
gave me practice in reading. Later he encouraged me 
to take the examinations for a teacher's certificate. 
I passed, and began to teach. I feel that my whole 
life was more benefited by the encouragement of 
that humble teacher than by all other influences 
combined." 

It is in this phase of character development that 
the school library is of great importance. Nothing 
helps a young person who has a hard struggle as much 
as reading or learning of others who had the same adver- 
sities. Their success gives him the encouragement he 
needs for his own success. The teacher can also assist 
in this matter by the helpful word, the sympathetic 
manner, and especially by the attitude that shows 
the pupil that she understands. 

In a certain school a ten year old boy came from 
a home in which he heard much profanity. He was so 



60 REACHING TEE CHILDREN 

accustomed to it that he used it himself without 
thinking. One day at school while at play the teacher 
overheard him using a profane word. He corrected 
him sternly, saying that another like offence would 
lead to severe punishment. Some two weeks later the 
same offence did occur, and the boy was whipped. 

On analysis it would seem as if this teacher not 
only did the pupil a great injustice, but used exactly 
the wrong method to reach the boy. If on the first 
occasion he had said, "My dear boy, I heard you 
swearing just now, perhaps unconsciously. I know 
how much swearing you hear at your home, and I 
have been surprised that you are doing so well. This 
is the first time I have heard you swear in these 
two weeks. Now let us see whether you can do as 
well the next week." And if the offence was repeated 
in two weeks, the teacher might well have said, "You 
are doing nobly! Once in two weeks is very much less 
than I could have done under the same circumstances. 
Of course, swearing is wrong, especially at school; 
but if you keep on you will overcome the habit en- 
tirely!" By means of appreciation for what pupils 
do not do, as well as for what they do, we can often 
produce results in character building that the most 
severe punishments fail to secure. 

Another means of encouraging pupils in their school 
progress is by a preservation of the pupil's work from 
time to time, and its comparison with that which is 
done later. For instance, at the opening of school the 
teacher asks all pupils to write in their best hand a 
stanza of poetry. Near the end of the term she gives 
the same exercise. Then she compares the first ex- 



THROUGH ENCOURAGEMENT 61 

ercise with the second. The improvement in most 
cases is much greater than the teacher herself reahzes. 
This encourages the teacher as well as the pupils. Of 
course the same comparisons can be made in all 
written work. 

A very powerful assistant in imbuing children with 
encouragement is to remove the causes of discourage- 
ment. If non-promotion has taken the heart out of a 
pupil, promote him on trial. He will surely do no 
worse after the advance than before, and he may do 
much better. At any rate he is likely to get more 
good out of the advanced class than out of the regu- 
lar grade. Promotions must never fail to take into 
account psychological effects. 

In some high schools a pupil begins a certain study 
and finds he does not like it and cannot do it. If he 
needs that study in his future course, he must natur- 
ally make the best of it; but if he does not need it, 
the question arises whether he should be allowed to 
drop it. Some teachers will not permit the dropping 
of any subject or a change of course after say two 
months of the term have expired. There are pupils 
whose marks in such study have shown a failure for 
ten months in succession. This is surely training in 
failure. The pupil has gained nothing; but in addi- 
tion to the habit of failure he has lived in an atmos- 
phere of discouragement for a year — enough to break 
the spirit of anybody. Psychology says, *'Give the 
student what he can do, and if he undertakes some- 
thing and after thorough trial finds he cannot do it, 
give him something else that he can master." We 
grow by success, and not by failure. No man can 



62 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

put his heart into any work that is forever beyond 
his strength. 

Other sources of discouragement are mentioned else- 
where. Unfavorable criticism takes the heart out of 
pupils. The oflPering of rewards takes the heart out 
of pupils who do not get them. Comparing a pupil 
from a poor and ignorant home with another from a 
fine home discourages the former. The teacher should 
never compare one pupil with another. The only 
proper comparison is of one pupil with himself. 

Excessively long or difficult lessons are a source of 
discouragement. Not long ago a man who is an ex- 
pert accountant in the New York office of the Stand- 
ard Oil Company sat down one evening at eight 
o'clock to help his twelve year old daughter work 
her arithmetic problems. After an hour he sent her 
to bed; and it was not until after midnight that he 
finished the task himself. Surely this teacher did 
not realize how much he was requiring of his pupils. 

The constant study of the teacher should therefore 
be, "How can I take away all elements that tend to 
discourage my pupils? — What elements can I bring 
to bear that will encourage my pupils.?" By this 
positive and negative study she cannot only secure 
enthusiasm in school lessons, but can exert a strong 
uplift on the lives of the children. 



Chapter X 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH TALKS BY 
THE TEACHER 

Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world, 
alters the world. — Emerson — Politics. 

A thought often makes us hotter than a fire. — Longfellow 

— T able-Talk. 

They are never alone who are accompanied with noble thoughts. 

— Sidney — Arcadia. 

Nurture your mind with great thoughts. — Disra.eli. 
Thought once awakened does not again slumber. — Caelylb. 

In some schools it is the custom for the principal 
to address the pupils in assembly from fifteen to 
twenty minutes every week. There is much testi- 
mony to show that this weekly exercise may be of 
great value in reaching the pupils. 

A prominent man once said that during his school 
days the principal gave weekly talks on a variety of 
subjects, and that he derived more benefit from them 
than from his school studies. 

A mother who had a boy at high school was some- 
what perplexed because he did not seem to show any 
earnestness of purpose. He was not a bad boy, but 
he did not seem to take life at all seriously, and did 
not show any ambition as to his future. But one day 



64 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

the mother said to a neighbor, "There has been a 
very remarkable change in John's attitude toward hfe 
since last month. Something that his school princi- 
pal said in his weekly talk struck the right spot in 
him, and he is now all I could desire. He is full of 
ambition, and I feel that we have no more to worry 
about." That young man not only made a creditable 
record at high school, but graduated with honor from 
Pratt Institute, and is a fine man in every respect. 
Surely if all the morning talks of that whole year had 
resulted in nothing more than in reaching this young 
man, they would have been amply justified. 

Especially in high schools it seems important that 
the principal should set forth before the pupils his ideals 
of life. He is presumed to have high aims, and be 
old enough to have had experience and observation. 
The pupils have vague ideals, or improper ideals, and 
they need not only to have right ideals set before 
them, but they must be inspired to pursue them. 

This work should, however, not be confined to high 
schools. In some respects these talks are more needed 
in rural schools than in high schools. The latter are 
usually situated in towns, in which are found many 
kinds of institutions for social and personal uplift; 
while the rural schools are often remote from all such 
institutions. Pupils who attend these schools seldom 
hear an inspiring talk unless it is given to them 
by their teacher. In many cases they will get no 
high ideals of life if the teacher does not set them 
forth. It is a great thing for a pupil to be brought 
face to face with the meaning of life, so that he may 
go on his way with a purpose, and not wander aim- 



THROUGH TALKS BY THE TEACHER 65 

lessly along. There is no agency better calculated to 
accomplish this result than the weekly talk. 

The teacher who undertakes to give these talks 
should herself be inspired with a high moral purpose. 
She must be thoroughly in earnest. Her presentation 
of moral subjects must be the natural outflow of her 
own life. If the pupils get a suspicion that the 
teacher is not herself trying to live up to the ideals 
she sets forth she will do more harm than good by 
her talks, because she will in their eyes be a hypocrite; 
and from this example pupils will gradually get the 
idea that all seemingly good people are hypocrites. 

These talks should be thoroughly prepared by the 
teacher. She should choose her subject with care, 
then plan the talk so as to make it interesting and 
pertinent to the pupils, and if necessary write out 
some of the sentences so as to make them as strong as 
possible. Of course she must use no manuscript in 
giving the talk, nor must she use any of the ridic- 
ulous gesticulations and expressions that at one time 
masqueraded under the name of elocution. She must 
be as simple and natural as possible — there must be 
no assuming of airs, nor must there be any formality 
in the occasion. 

White's "School Management" contains a very full 
list of subjects for these talks, with stories, poems, 
and illustrations to make them effective. This book 
contains enough material for a year. It also gives 
suggestions for its use. Another helpful book is 
Shearer's "Morals and Manners." 

This may be a good place to call attention to the 
fact that, in this work, the teacher should endeavor 



66 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

to give inspiration to girls as well as to boys. It is a 
curious fact that nearly everybody who addresses 
pupils confines himseK to boys. He tells of Abraham 
Lincoln and George Washington — of Gladstone, 
Cromwell, Andrew Jackson — of boys he knew who 
worked their way amid great difficulties; but did 
you ever hear a speaker tell of girls who likewise 
worked their way.f* And he will urge all the pupils, 
boys and girls, to take Lincoln as an example! Is 
this because girls have never risen amid difficulties, 
because they are not supposed to rise under any cir- 
cumstances, or because they do not need any inspir- 
ation? Surely this cannot be the reason. It is, 
rather, because we have become accustomed to the 
presentation of the male ideal. 

Every time, therefore, that the teacher talks to 
pupils about some fine man and holds him up as an 
example, she should on the next occasion set forth the 
life of a fine woman as an example. You do not want 
your girl to grow up to be an ideal man any more 
than you want your boy to become an ideal woman. 

The teacher will do well to illustrate her talks as 
much as possible by stories of living persons known 
to pupils either personally or by reputation. It is a 
question whether a story of Socrates will take hold of 
a pupil as effectively as a story of some humbler man 
or woman living a life of usefulness today. In the 
state or county on which the pupil lives there are fine 
people of whom he has heard, and who are therefore 
more within his ken than the ancient Greeks; and he 
will be much more Hkely to find inspiration in them 
than in persons living far away or in ancient times. 



THROUGH TALKS BY THE TEACHER 67 

For example: One of the leading trained nurses in 
a certain city was once a girl in a remote rural section 
of the state. On account of the death of her mother 
she had to leave school at the age of fifteen to assume 
charge of a large family. Her father did not believe 
in the education of girls, so he designed her for his 
housekeeper. One by one he educated his boys, but 
her turn never came to go away to school. But she 
too was ambitious; and when she became twenty-one, 
knowing that her father had means to secure a house- 
keeper, she determined to strike out for herseK. She 
entered a hospital to study nursing, supported herself, 
graduated from a four-year course, and soon became 
one of the very efficient nurses of a large city. 

This is a story which, if told to pupils who live in 
the state in which this incident occurred, will prove of 
great interest and benefit to them. This is not a 
story of some extraordinary genius who was led by 
heavenly voices, but a plain country girl who had 
ambition and initiative. Up to the age of twenty- 
one she lived the same life that all rural girls live. 
Hence her story will appeal to girls because she was 
one of them. 

In the same county a boy attended a rural school 
until he was seventeen. Then one morning he walked 
to a graded school three miles away and asked to be 
admitted. He was placed in an eighth grade among 
pupils three years younger than he was. Owing to 
his neglected early education he had a hard struggle 
to keep up with even the poorest pupils in the grade; 
but he was thoroughly in earnest, and through the 
sympathetic help of his teachers he was able to pass to 



68 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

the high school the next fall, whence he graduated at 
the age of twenty- two. During his high school course 
he was compelled to take charge of his home farm, 
because his father was not strong enough to do it; 
and as the family means were very small, the boy had 
to earn his tuition as he went along. He devised all 
sorts of ways to do this. For instance, he made over 
one hundred dollars each year through his bee hives. 

Having graduated at high school, this young man 
determined to gain a college education. This was a 
formidable proposition under the circumstances, and 
he had to stay at home one year because he had no 
money; but then he entered college, and by means of 
unremitting industry he made his way through year 
by year, graduating at the age of twenty-seven. 

His sterling qualities did not fail to commend them- 
selves to the professors of the college; and on grad- 
uation he at once received an appointment as assistant 
professor of agriculture in a western university. 

These two stories, one of a girl, the other of a boy, 
illustrate the type that appeals to pupils everywhere, 
but especially to those who live in the same county 
with them. All children come to the point some time 
in their lives when they have a feeling that all great 
personal achievements belong to the past; that the 
days of knighthood perished with the middle ages; 
that there is no opportunity for heroism except in 
time of war. It is for the teacher to point out by 
such stories as above given that the finest kind of 
heroism is going on all around us at the present day, 
and that there is an unlimited field for personal 
achievement open to every boy and girl. 



THROUGH TALKS BY THE TEACHER 69 

Some teachers object to the suggestions in this 
chapter on the ground that morahzing is repugnant 
to pupils, and does more harm than good. It has 
already been pointed out that no teacher should 
undertake these talks unless she can substantiate them 
in her own life. It may also be stated in passing that 
if a teacher cannot "back up" talks of this nature 
she is not qualified to be a teacher. But all exper- 
ience proves that pupils listen eagerly to these stories 
and talks if they are well presented. There is a spirit 
within each pupil that responds to the appeal to 
higher things. Naturally the teacher must use judg- 
ment in this, as in all other matters; but in the hands 
of the good teacher this direct appeal to the ambition 
of the pupils is one of the most powerful influences for 
good yet discovered. 



Chapter XI 

REACHING TEE CHILDREN THROUGH FINE 
SENTIMENTS 

Who can estimate the value of a good thought? — Emerson. 
Whene'er a noble deed is wrought. 
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought. 
Our hearts, in glad surprise, 
To higher levels rise. 

— Longfellow. 

Occasionally some great writer crystallizes in a 
few words a portion of the meaning of life. He puts 
into a single statement the result of years of thinking 
of a fine mind. He embodies in a few words a 
thought of which we have, perhaps, been vaguely 
conscious ourselves, but which we have been unable to 
formulate. When we happen on such sentiments, 

"Our hearts, in glad surprise. 
To higher levels rise." 

These sentiments, if cherished, become more and 
more principles of conduct. As such they have a 
powerful influence on our lives. They are anchors 
that hold us in time of storm and keep us from being 
blown out to sea or dashed upon the rocks. They are 
the rules that determine the "structure that we raise." 
They are the guide posts that point the way along 
the journey of life. 



THROUGH FINE SENTIMENTS 71 

In youth, filled with the freshness of early life, 
these teachings are especially effective. Children are 
just setting out on their journey, and they eagerly 
seize upon directions that may keep them from losing 
their way. They are full of hope and confidence; and 
the seed of inspiring thoughts finds fertile soil. 

Hence there should be systematic use of fine mot- 
toes and sentiments in the schoolroom. One each 
week may very well be placed on the blackboard, 
explained, illustrated, applied, and memorized. At 
the end of his school course the child will thus have 
filled his mind with an invaluable collection of fine 
gems that will enrich his life for all time. 

An extract that is strong, and at the same time 
simple, is this from Charles Dickens: "Whatever I 
have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart 
to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I 
have devoted myself to completely; in great aims and 
in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest." 

In order that this extract may become effective the 
teacher must explain to the pupils something of the 
work that Dickens accomplished in the way of social 
reform — schools, teaching, almshouses, jails, courts, 
society. She must bring out the quality of output 
of his whole life, and show how this would have been 
impossible but for his adherence to his motto of al- 
ways being "thoroughly in earnest." The next step 
is to show how other men and women who accomplish 
things worth while in all walks of life are consciously 
or unconsciously realizing the teachings of Dickens, 
and how this is true in school work. Then she should 
show the disastrous consequences of the violation of 



7£ REACHING THE CHILDREN 

Dickens's rule — how certain persons naturally bright 
have frittered away their lives from pure lack of 
earnestness. In this way the extract will become full 
of meaning to the children. It should be repeated 
many times — kept under constant review. With 
each repetition it will sink deeper, and tend to 
become a more powerful influence. 

Another extract that has a deep meaning is from 
Ella Wheeler Wilcox: 

*' One ship drives east, the other drives west. 

With the self same winds that blow; 
'Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales. 

That determines which way they go. 

"Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate. 

As we voyage along through life; 
'Tis the set of the soul that decides the goal. 

And not the calm or the strife." 

In teaching this extract there must be some instruc- 
tion in the method of handling a sail boat. Pupils 
must be shown how it is possible to sail against the 
the wind, and the importance of "tacking." It is an 
easy step to lead them to see how you cannot tell in 
which way a ship is going from the direction of the 
wind. Then pupils may be shown how some people 
always go with the wind, even if it is in the wrong 
direction; and how some people have a hard fight 
because the wind is against them; and how in nearly 
all cases the wind changes by and by. After these 
and other explanations that will occur to the teacher, 
the pupils are ready for the expression of the thought 
as given by Mrs. Wilcox. 



THROUGH FINE SENTIMENTS 73 

Boys are usually much interested in the romantic 
exploits of "Stonewall" Jackson. The teacher might 
very well point him out as an example of one who 
was "thoroughly in earnest." 

The story of his early life in what is now West 
Virginia shows a boy with few chances for advance- 
ment. Then comes his entry into West Point, his 
brave struggle to overcome his early deficiencies of 
education; how all he could possibly do the first 
year was to keep himseK from being dropped from 
his class for inability to do the work, but how he 
finally graduated tenth in a class of twenty-seven; 
and how through the severe pressure of these four 
years he was sustained by the motto that he adopted 
early in life, "I can do whatever I will to do." The 
teacher should show how after West Point, in the 
Mexican and the Civil wars, his marvelous achieve- 
ments sprang out of the effective use of his own 
motto. Of course, the teacher must always supply 
additional examples to show how a motto is imiver- 
saliy true. 

Some young people, and many adults, are obsessed 
with the conviction that success or failure in life 
depends on external conditions, facts, or circumstances. 
They think people succeed because they are lucky, 
or fail because they are unlucky. They feel that pro- 
gress is only for persons of means, and not for people 
who are poor. A fine antidote for this state of mind 
is the expression of Walt Whitman: "Henceforth I 
ask not good fortune — I myself am good fortune." 
It is needless to suggest the numberless instances on 
every hand that prove the correctness of this thought; 



74 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

and the teacher will do a great work if by driving it 
into the minds of the pupils she thereby expels that 
vicious notion of luck that has wrought so much 
damage in the lives of people of all ages. 

Philip James Bailey, in Festus, gives us these 
familiar lines: 

" We live 
In deeds, not years, in thoughts, not breaths. 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart throbs — he most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

Shakespeare has many good things to contribute to 
this work: 

"Our doubts are traitors. 
And make us lose the good we oft might win 
By fearing to attempt." 

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. 
But in ourselves that we are underlings." 

In the old-time schools it was customary to place 
on the wall printed mottoes. Some of these did more 
good than we realized at the time. They are just as 
valuable today as at any time, and should be pre- 
sented to the pupils even if they seem trite to us. 
For instance, one of the old mottoes taught a lesson 
we should all heed: 

"Wealth lost, nothing lost; 
Health lost, much lost; 
Character lost, all lost!" 

Other mottoes are, "A stitch in time saves nine." 
"Many a mickle makes a muckle." "Night brings 



THROUGH FINE SENTIMENTS 75 

out the stars." "Labor conquers all things." "Do 
the next thing." 

The field of mottoes and extracts is rich. All de- 
pends on the teacher whether these riches shall be 
made available for the pupils, and be to them a 
great blessing. 



Chapter XII 

REACHING TEE CHILDREN THROUGH SYMPATHY 

The secrets of life are not shown except to sympathy and like- 
ness. — Emerson's Rejyresentative Men. 

The man who melts 
With social sympathy, though not allied. 
Is than a thousand kinsmen of more worth. 

— Euripides — Orestes. 
Ah! thank Heaven, travellers find Samaritans as well as Levites 
on life's hard way. — Thackeray. 

Sympathy is the golden key that unlocks the hearts of others. 
— Smiles. 

Next to love, sympathy is the divinest passion of the human 
heart. — Burke. 

It is a well known fact that our greatest influence 
is exerted on those who are most closely connected 
with us. We have but little influence on mere 
acquaintances, and none at all on persons we do not 
know. 

Thus the teacher influences most the pupils whom 
she knows best. A good teacher will strive to be- 
come intimate with all her pupils, and in that way 
her possibilities for good will be at their maximum. 

But mere knowledge does not tell the whole story. 
Nobody is influenced by another except through the 
feelings. It is the feelings that move the will. In- 



THROUGH SYMPATHY 77 

tellect is cold. The will is not moved by mere 
intellect. 

The word sympathy ^ when analyzed, means "a 
feeling with" some one or some thing. When we do 
not like a certain proposition in civic or social life, 
we say we are not in sympathy with it, or we some- 
times find ourselves out of sympathy with a man. 

Now nothing is more certain than that we cannot 
do anything to help another if we are out of sympathy 
with him. Only sympathizers can help. Others, in 
the nature of the case, antagonize. "He that is not 
for us is against us." 

The absolutely essential attitude for the teacher 
to take if she would reach her pupils is one of sym- 
pathy. Without it she can do nothing in the way of 
influencing them. 

The teacher cannot do much to help pupils unless 
she has feeling with their sorrows, joys, troubles, 
perplexities. She cannot reach them unless she en- 
ters into their interests, into their lives. To remain 
out of touch with these lives, and simply to reason 
with them, will not move them. No connection is 
established. 

It sometimes happens that a boy is sent to a man 
principal because of truancy. It may also be that 
when that principal was a boy he himself was guilty 
of the same offence. In that case, nothing will bring 
the principal nearer to that boy's heart than for him 
to say, "My dear boy, I know exactly why you did 
this, and how you feel about it, because when I was 
a boy I did the same thing. I don't pretend that I 
was a perfect boy any more than I am now a perfect 



78 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

man. However, that doesn't alter the fact that 
truancy is wrong; and just as I overcame it, I want 
you to overcome it." This clears the way for a 
frank interchange of views. It places the teacher on 
the same level with the pupil, and puts him in a 
position to help him. He cannot reach down from a 
moral mountain top to take the hand of those at the 
foot. 

The sympathetic attitude of the teacher may be 
considered in reference to the school as a whole, and 
also in reference to individual pupils. The first morn- 
ing a teacher appears before her class the pupils will 
discern her attitude toward them. She cannot 
deceive them even if she would. They will instinc- 
tively feel whether she likes teaching or not, whether 
she is fond of children or not, whether she will treat 
them as a kind helper or hold herself aloof. They 
make this analysis almost unconsciously. They tell 
from the tone of her voice, her manner, the flash of 
the eye, and the many little acts that are part of the 
daily life in the schoolroom. On that impression of 
the first morning depends a great deal of the teacher's 
success during the year. If the children's verdict is 
not favorable, they will instinctively take a negative 
attitude toward her. Like sensitive plants they will 
close themselves to her approach. 

If on the other hand the teacher shows the right 
attitude toward the school, the pupils "in glad sur- 
prise" open their hearts to her. They are ready to 
do anything for her. They feel that what she does is 
actuated by a desire for their good. They fear to 
lose her favor, or to grieve her by misconduct. They 



THROUGH SYMPATHY 79 

love the school work because of her attitude toward 
it and toward them. Teacher and pupils work in 
complete harmony. They form a cooperative society 
with the teacher as leader. This means good school 
work, good moral training, good preparation for 
citizenship, teaching and learning a pleasure. In no 
way can the teacher make her work more effective 
and pleasant than by possessing and showing the 
right attitude toward the school as a whole. 

In addition to this general attitude there must be 
an individual relation between the teacher and each 
of her pupils. It is not enough that the teacher treat 
her pupils properly as a whole. The individuals all 
differ from each other. Each pupil is unique, and 
therefore needs treatment adapted to his peculiar 
make-up. The teacher must establish this individual 
relationship with each pupil if the highest results are 
to be achieved. 

It is natural and easy for the teacher to be fond of 
her likable pupils. The dear little girl who is nearly 
perfect is of course a joy, and we love her. However, 
this little girl very likely has a nice home, and lives 
in an atmosphere of love and sympathy. She needs 
love and sympathy at school too, but not as much as 
if she had none at home. 

There is, however, the boy who does not know 
anything about sympathy as far as his home treat- 
ment is concerned, but who has an unquenchable 
desire for it nevertheless. He is probably not well 
dressed, and may be backward in his studies. He 
may even be of a bad disposition. 

If any pupil in the room needs sympathy, it is this 



80 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

rough, ragged, troublesome boy. It may indeed be 
that that is all he needs. It is possible that sympathy 
is the only thing necessary to bring out his better 
self. Yet too often we give our sympathy to the 
lovable children, and withhold it from those who need 
it most. Of course this is natural; but the true 
teacher is not satisfied with the easy and natural 
attitude alone. She has higher ideals than that. She 
sees in every neglected child her opportunity for 
service to that child and to humanity. "They that 
are whole need not a physician, but they that are 
sick." "The Son of Man came to seek and to save 
that which was lost." "I came not to call the right- 
eous, but sinners to repentance." The Gospels are 
full of the strongest and clearest statements showing 
that the Great Teacher had foremost in his mind the 
outcasts. 

The teacher should not postpone the establishment 
of this individual connection until the pupil shall 
have committed some offence which needs correction. 
On that basis some pupils would never need a private 
interview. It is necessary to establish personal 
friendship as soon as possible with each pupil; and if 
the teacher has any reason to suspect that a certain 
pupil will cause trouble he is one of the very first 
who should be sought out and given a copious share 
of the teacher's regard so that the possible trouble 
may be avoided. 

For instance, here is a large boy who looks as if he 
might not have a proper attitude toward teacher or 
school. He has at home a fine horse and buggy or 
an automobile, which he is allowed to drive. If the 



THROUGH SYMPATHY 81 

teacher will do him the great favor of allowing him 
to do her a favor, and will take a drive with him, and 
show her appreciation thereof, he will feel that he has 
a superior claim on her — that somehow he is not only 
a pupil but a personal friend. This relationship will 
hold him straight when he might otherwise go wrong; 
and more than that, it will open the way to the 
teacher for the implanting of higher ideals in him. 

In some schools teachers have a card index system, 
by means of which their pupils are observed, studied, 
and their qualities tabulated with much care. This 
is a very valuable plan provided it does not result in 
the teacher's regarding her pupils merely as subjects of 
natural history. It has been noticed that some pro- 
fessional charity workers have so developed the busi- 
ness side of philanthropy that they have refined out 
of themselves that human sympathy which the poor 
so much need. There is the same danger in the un- 
wise absorption of teachers in child study. The card 
system is a help to the memory, a means of conven- 
ience, but should never become an end in itself. 

In a certain school there was a ragged boy about 
eleven years old. His teacher was one of those who 
pursue their routine with no special interest in any- 
thing. She knew little about the home life of her 
pupils, and cared less. 

One morning this boy was absent from school, and 
he did not return for three days. The teacher was 
much annoyed that her register had been spoiled by 
these three absent marks. On the fourth day he was 
in his seat; and after roll call she said to him in a 
stern voice, "Mike, what kept you out of school the 



REACHING TEE CHILDREN 



last three days?'* Mike looked at her in a some- 
what startled manner, then put his head on his hands, 
and burst into tears. The teacher then rose in her 
wrath, and said, "Quit your sniveling at once! Is it 
not enough that you should spoil my register? Must 
you also act like a sissy as soon as I ask you a decent 
question? Now I want no more of this. You get 
out your books and get to work or I'll see that you 
get something worth pouting about, and that right 
away!" 

Now the fact was that little Mike's father was a 
drunkard, and Mike had to sell papers early and late 
in order to support his mother; and Mike's finer 
feelings were harrowed every evening by the cruelties 
and brutalities that are found in the drunkard's 
home. Finally Mike's mother found her lot too heavy 
to bear, and she drooped, and passed away. Mike's 
absence from school had been caused by his mother's 
death. She had been buried the day before; and 
when Mike saw the lid close on her coflfin he felt that 
he had lost the only friend he had in the world, and 
his heart was broken. The next morning when he 
reached school — nay, long before that morning — 
he stood in desperate need of the teacher's sympathy 
and love; and to come to school with a broken heart, 
only to be pierced by the unfeeling criticism of this 
heartless teacher, was more than he could bear. 

Do you suppose that this teacher ever did any 
good to little Mike? Do you suppose she ever 
afterwards could do any good to him? No — her 
power to influence Mike, if it ever did exist, was 
certainly now gone forever. Of course, the teacher 



THROUGH SYMPATHY 83 

would not have been so severe if she had known the 
circumstances; but how can she be excused for her 
ignorance? The reason why she did not know the 
situation is because she had no interest in Mike. To 
her he was merely number ten on the register and sat 
on the tenth seat of the left-hand row. Do you sup- 
pose that if she had had a love for this boy he could 
have been absent a single day without her knowing 
why? It is probable that many young teachers do 
not realize the great need of sympathy in the treat- 
ment of pupils. Perhaps the majority of young 
teachers come from refined homes with good parents 
and congenial friends. They have been carefully 
shielded from contact with the grosser side of life; 
and when they begin their teaching they are in igno- 
rance of the deplorable amount of misery and sin that 
exists in some of the homes from which at least a few 
of their pupils come. Until they have some idea of 
the baleful environment that warps the lives of these 
children, they cannot establish a point of contact 
with them. They live in different worlds. To the 
unfortunate boy the teacher's home would be heaven; 
while to the teacher that boy's home would be per- 
dition. Hence the indispensable need of the teacher 
visiting the homes, and seeing how the children live, 
if she would reach them. 

It is not meant to convey the idea that the sympa- 
thetic teacher must be loose in her school discipline 
— that she should be so full of sympathy for her 
pupils as to let them all do just as they please. This 
would be a degeneration of sympathy into weakness. 
The teacher should be so full of sympathy for the 



84 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

best welfare of the children that she will hold them 
up strictly to high standards. Tasks must be ac- 
complished. Order must prevail. One of the main 
purposes of the school is to instill by practice the 
performance of all assigned duties. Besides, pupils like 
a strict teacher if she is fair, and dislike a teacher who 
is too easy. It is only necessary that these high 
standards be maintained by a teacher who loves her 
pupils, who can put herself into their places, and 
who is a friend in time of joy and of sorrow. 



Chapter XIII 

REACHING THE CHILDREN BY DIRECT MORAL 
INSTRUCTION 

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old 
he will not depart from it. — The Proverbs of Solomon. 

Dr. Emerson E. White, in his book on "School 
Management," treats at some length and with much 
force the need for direct and systematic moral instruc- 
tion in schools. He rightly maintains that it is not 
necessary to be forever "moralizing" in order to give 
instruction in character building; and he asserts that 
the wise teacher will do much more good through 
systematic lessons than by merely seizing upon 
occasions as they arise. 

It has already been urged that individual correction 
should be private and confidential as far as possible, 
and that there is little call for public or general 
criticism of a class. If this precept is followed, it is 
inevitable that there are scores of virtues that will 
never get any attention in the school. Their impor- 
tance and their cultivation may be urged upon cer- 
tain individuals who are conspicuously lacking in 
them, but the school as a whole will get no such 
instruction. 

For instance, politeness is a virtue that is univer- 
sally needful. In the home, the school, the church. 



86 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

in business, on vacations, — everywhere there is a 
sphere for the exercise of this quality. But if instruc- 
tion in this subject is incidental, it is altogether 
possible that it will never be broadly treated in any 
one year. There are young people who are polite in 
their homes, but at a summer boarding house they 
are utterly oblivious of true politeness and consid- 
eration of others. They disturb the comfort of the 
other vacationists day and night, and do not for a 
moment consider that they are guilty of bad manners. 
They feel like the small boy, who the night before the 
family went on vacation, said in his evening prayer, 
"Good-by, Lord, I'm going to the sea-shore!" 

If the teacher will give a fifteen-minute lesson on 
politeness, showing its fundamental nature, its uni- 
versal principle, and will apply it to the several 
spheres in which the children move, it will surely do 
some good to some of them. They will not think that 
politeness is for the home and the school, but not for 
the street; neither will they think that politeness is 
for other people but not for their own family. They 
will begin to see that politeness is in the heart as a 
foundation, and in the outward life as its expression. 
Usually children are polite because they are trained 
to be polite; and in this the school can do much, 
especially for such as do not get this training in their 
homes. Through systematic lessons in the virtues, 
therefore, there is likely to be a treatment of many 
phases of conduct that would not otherwise come up 
for consideration in the usual course of school life. 
Furthermore, such instruction is a strong influence in 
making children thoughtful in all their conduct. If 



THROUGH DIRECT MORAL INSTRUCTION 87 

there is any one factor designed to expel frivolousness 
from a young person, it is a feeling of consideration for 
others. Some little children find it difficult to look 
at their own actions from the standpoint of another. 
They cannot put themselves in the place of other 
people. It is said that certain boys do not have the 
slightest idea that their whip hurts the dog until the 
same whip is used on them. As soon as they have 
been made sensible of the pain, their cruelty ceases. 

The study of politeness above suggested would 
bring before pupils phases that are new to them. 
Often their idea of politeness is the raising of their 
caps to ladies, and the saying of "Thank you" for 
favors. Unless the deeper aspects of politeness are 
pointed out by the teacher such ideas lead to veneer, 
to superficial formality, which tends toward hypocrisy. 
But if the teacher gives instruction in the funda- 
mental principles of politeness, shows its universality, 
its importance for one's self as well as for others, 
she cannot fail to exert an uplifting influence on the 
children. 

How many children realize that the rigid etiquette 
and formality of life at the court of kings is not only 
designed to display the grandeur of the royal estate 
but also to engender and maintain a feeling of pro- 
found respect in the hearts of the courtiers.^ How 
many children realize that by rising when a lady 
enters the room they are not only showing honor to 
her but are developing a sense of respect for all 
womanhood? And how many are sensible of the 
fact that this feeling of respect cannot be realized 
to the highest degree unless it is manifested in the 



88 REACHING TEE CHILDREN 

forms found best adapted for the purpose through 
the experience of many generations of society? These 
things are not learned of themselves. They need to 
be taught. 

It is to be feared that some teachers hesitate to 
undertake this instruction because they realize that 
to teach politeness or any other virtue with power it 
is necessary for the teacher to be an exemplar for the 
pupils. The standard thus set for the teacher is so 
high that she is reluctant to assume it. Several con- 
siderations may, however, be noted. One is that the 
teacher should be a model for her pupils; and that 
whether she will or not, she is a model for her pupils. 
There is no escape; and possibly the establishment 
of a high standard may be an influence to help her to 
reach more nearly the requirements of a model. 

Then again, the teacher should never pretend that 
she is a perfect woman any more than pupils should 
pretend to be perfect children. The teacher who 
says in effect, "These are the standards we should 
set up for us; these are the ideals we should strive 
to reach. We shall never reach perfection; we all 
sometimes fail. But the more we really try to im- 
prove, the more nearly we shall approach our stand- 
ard" — that teacher will place herself on a level with 
her pupils, all striving for improvement. 

If a teacher is not willing to put forth any effort 
toward self -culture, if she in her life and acts contra- 
dicts her teachings, she had better not undertake 
this direct moral training. She cannot possibly teach 
pupils to be kind if she is unkind herself. She cannot 
possibly teach pupils to speak gently if she violates 



THROUGH DIRECT MORAL INSTRUCTION 89 

her teachings by scolding and sharp criticism. But, 
such teacher ought to examine herself carefully as to 
whether she should not leave the teaching profession 
and give place to some one whose life and words 
more nearly coincide. 

"But children dislike moralizing." True, if the 
teacher is forever saying, "Now, Johnny, be a good 
boy" — -"Mary, be nice," etc., ad nauseam. But this 
is not what is meant by direct moral instruction in 
the schools. If properly done, all experience teaches 
that pupils welcome these discussions, and are more 
interested in them than in many of their regular 
lessons. For example, a principal once gave a thirty- 
minute lesson every day for three weeks in June to 
the graduating class in a three-year high school, 
using as a basis the treatment of practical ethics, 
given in Haven's "Moral Philosophy." When these 
pupils bade their principal good-by at the end of the 
graduation exercises they said with one voice that they 
had enjoyed these lessons more than anything else in 
the course, and had been greatly helped thereby. 

Teachers can get better results in the teaching of 
history by direct instruction in the subject than by 
all the indirect instruction that can be gained in the 
reading lessons, the encyclopedia, and books on biog- 
raphy. Direct instruction in all other subjects is 
just as necessary for adequate acquirement. There 
is direct instruction now in music, drawing, industrial 
work — in everything the schools attempt. Similarly, 
instruction in ethics will never reach a maximum of 
effectiveness unless it is direct and regular. It will 
never be what it should be unless teachers are as well 



90 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

prepared to present the subject as the manual train- 
ing teacher is to teach manual training, or the teacher 
of grammar is to teach grammar. And if properly 
taught, direct moral instruction will be far more valu- 
able to children than the correction of false syntax or 
the compounding of interest. Emerson's judgment of a 
country was the kind of men and women it produces. 
The judgment of a school might likewise be the kind 
of boys and girls it produces. For this work, direct 
moral instruction is indispensable. 

John King Clark has built up in a large New York 
school, of which he is principal, a system for teaching 
morals and ethics that is practical and simple. The 
outlines actually used by his teachers are given in 
his "Systematic Moral Education." 



Chapter XIV 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH 
COMPANIONSHIP 

I live not in myself, but I become a 
Portion of that around me. — Byron. 

**I AM a part of all that I have met." This sen- 
tence, which Tennyson puts in the mouth of the aged 
Ulysses, is profoundly true and significant. It has a 
fourfold application, which gives it a scope as broad 
as life. 

Ulysses had had an adventurous life. He had been 
among the leaders in the ten years' war before Troy. 
For twenty years thereafter he had wandered about 
the seac, meeting with strange people, strange scenes, 
and strange adventures. Then he resumed his king- 
ship on the island of Ithaca; and in his last days, as 
he looked back upon his varied career, and especially 
when he saw himself an associate of kings and world 
renowned warriors, he exclaimed with pride, 

"I have been in battle with my peers! " 

and then said with equal pride, 

"I am a part of all that I have met." 

This thought may be amplified thus: "Great men 
have I met. I have been an actor in great scenes. 



REACHING THE CHILDREN 



stirring adventures, vicissitudes by land and sea; and 
from all these have I imbibed their essential qualities. 
The great men have given me freely of their heroism; 
the great scenes have imprinted themselves indelibly 
on my mind; the adventures and vicissitudes have 
given me courage, resourcefulness, patience, per- 
severance, and faith in the gods. Hence I have 
literally been made by what I have met. I am the 
sum, the embodiment, of these scenes." 

On the other hand, Ulysses might have reasoned 
thus: "When before Troy I gave to my peers all the 
courage and skill which I possessed, I contributed part 
of my life to the great Trojan conquest. Then during 
the twenty years of wandering I put my intrepidity 
into my sailors, and into all whom I encountered. 
And now, after a long life I feel that every person I 
have met has within him some of my life; and every 
adventure I saw received the impress of some of my 
qualities." 

Ulysses boasted of this influence, either as he 
received it, or as he gave it. He was proud of it 
in either aspect. He became noble because of the 
nobility of the peers with whom for ten years he vied 
in deeds of valor, or because he gave noble qualities 
to all he met. 

All writers and thinkers agree as to the very vital 
importance of young people securing the proper 
associations. "Try to frequent the company of your 
betters," says Thackeray. "In books and hfe that 
is the most wholesome society. Learn to admire 
rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what 
great men admired: they admired great things; 



THROUGH COMPANIONSHIP 93 

narrow spirits admire basely and worship meanly." 

It is of very great moment that a man who is a 
king should associate with his peers; and if he is not 
a king, that he should associate with the most royal 
men he can find. 

Association with inferiors has a powerful tendency 
to drag one down. It is almost impossible to keep 
oneseK from falling from the high standard he might 
otherwise maintain. Stable boys may be just as good 
as anybody else; but "gossiping" with them, as Ruskin 
says, takes the mind from things that kings and queens 
enjoy, and draws it down to a much lower level. 

The boy meets a fine man for the first time. 
They enter into conversation, and the boy gives 
atten.tion to the words of his new acquaintance. 
They discuss things interesting to both. The boy 
gets a glimpse of the thoughts that occupy the mind 
of the man, and to which he assigns some importance. 
The more they meet, the more intimate they become; 
the more the boy enters into the interests and ideals 
of the man; the more his own ideals are elevated by 
the communion; and step by step the boy rises to the 
level of the man's thinking. The man's ideals become 
the boy's ideals; and the boy has been developed 
into a fine man because he has become a part of him 
whom he has met. 

Another boy has no such opportunity of meeting a 
great man, but he has Weems's "Life of Washington," 
"Pilgrim's Progress," "iEsop's Fables," a "History 
of the United States," and above all, the Bible. He 
reads these books over and over again. The more he 
reads them, the more his mind mounts to the rising 



94 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

ideals they present. By and by they control not only 
his style of writing and speaking, but his very think- 
ing; and through his thinking his actions and his 
character. In other words, Abraham Lincoln was 
largely the embodiment of the men and scenes he 
met through the printed page. It may be affirmed 
with much confidence that the most effective principle 
for young people to follow is, "Give your attention 
to the higher things." 

The students who attended Wellesley College in the 
eighties and early nineties pursued the customary 
college curriculum with the usual gratifying results. 
They learned much in the classroom, much in the 
library, much from their classmates; but they enjoyed 
the inestimable privilege, alas! now gone for all time, 
of personal contact with Alice Freeman, "the most 
persuasive personality I have ever met," as Lyman 
Abbott characterizes her. "The finest example thus 
far set before American womanhood," possessing the 
highest ideals herself, living her ideals to a remarkable 
degree, so influenced her students through personal 
contact and otherwise, that they rose toward the 
standard of her own life. In this case the girls were 
not so much associating with one of their betters as 
with a divine being who was yet thoroughly human, 
and had known all the struggles of adversity. To 
be associated with such a personality is a privilege 
and a blessing that comes to few persons in a lifetime. 

There are some people who believe that Heaven 
exists here and now; that the soul is immortal, but 
that this immortality consists only in the parts of 
ourselves that we put into other people. We give 



THROUGH COMPANIONSHIP 95 

one person an impulse toward goodness, or give him 
a distinct contribution toward his welfare — in other 
words, do him some good. That good is a part of 
our life. Through him it goes into some one else, 
and so on, forever. This is immortality, say some, 
and the only immortality. 

Few will agree that this creed is suflSicient; but it 
embodies the great truth that the good we do lives in 
others, and that its influence is immeasurable. What 
a privilege Alice Freeman enjoyed of having her rich 
life become part of the lives of the thousands of 
Wellesley girls whom she knew, and the multitudes 
of others whom she did not know! 

The same privilege is for the teacher. She takes 
charge of a school, and through her conscious and 
unconscious influence her pupils will imbibe her life 
and become more and more like her. Her ideals 
become their ideals. The things she considers worth 
while the children will consider worth while. What 
she does, what she says, the books she reads, the 
things she loves, indeed, the whole outgoing of her 
life, molds and transforms the pupils more and more 
into what she is. Great the opportunity — great the 
responsibility ! 

It is very evident that this becoming like those we 
meet has an obverse side. If the associates of Ulysses 
from his boyhood up had been his peers, but instead 
of being kings had been corner loafers, the world 
would never have heard of him or of them. The boy 
who under proper auspices imbibes the ideals of fine 
men, directly or through books, and is ennobled 
thereby, will just as certainly, under improper auspices. 



96 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

imbibe the ideals of low men, directly or through 
books, and will be degraded thereby. If he associates 
with the base, and enters into the things that interest 
them, he will become part of that life, and go to 
destruction. 

Lastly, the evil man gives of his life wherever he 
goes, and it becomes part of all he meets. If this 
were immortality (and it is a portion of immortality), 
what a frightful picture! To have one's blasting 
influence continue for all time — to be forever degrad- 
ing the innocent — to give pain for joy, despair for 
hope, hell for heaven, world without end! Surely 
some would pause in their wickedness if they could 
be made to feel the consequences of their acts. 

To the true teacher this doctrine is full of encour- 
agement. Sometimes she feels as if her pupils were 
not improving as they should — that she is getting 
little response to her efforts to build up their char- 
acters. But let her consider that her greatest influ- 
ence is silent — that her teachings find lodgment in 
the hearts of the children and sometimes do not im- 
mediately come to fruition. But by and by, when 
the seed has lain for the proper length of time beneath 
the soil, it will come up little by little, and in the 
end may show a rich harvest. 



Chapter XV 
REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH IDEALS 

One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth an age without a name. 

— Scott. 

Hugh Black has well said, "The ideal is the real 
as it should be.'' Perhaps nowhere else in all liter- 
ature has this great truth been expressed more clearly 
and more simply. If the real man were what he 
should be, he would be ideal. So would the land- 
scape, the picture, the tree, the work. The more 
ideal elements anything possesses the more permanent 
it will be, and the more worthy. Our purpose should 
be to introduce the greatest possible number of ideal 
elements into our Uves, and as teachers, to reach 
our pupils by instilling these elements into their 
hearts. 

The sources of these elements are, of course, to 
be found in nature and in the fine arts. To the 
appreciative eye every flower, shrub, tree, landscape, 
mountain, is full of the ideal. The condemnation 
which* Peter Bell in Wordsworth's poem brought on 
himself was that 

"A primrose by a river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him. 
And it was nothing more." 



REACHING TEE CHILDREN 



He saw nothing in it but a yellow flower — no beauty, 
no God, not even an object of interest. Hence his 
whole life was on the low plane of a real with no 
ideal elements. 

Surround the child with high-class pictures. More 
and more they will make to his heart their effective 
appeal. They will unconsciously elevate his tastes 
and his thoughts. More and more they will tend to 
make the inartistic and the coarse distasteful to him. 
His feelings and his manners will be refined. Life 
will have a meaning for him. He will see the beauty 
of the other arts and of nature. If this unconscious 
teaching is supplemented by instruction, its value 
will be largely increased. 

In these days of victrolas there is little reason why 
children should not enjoy what formerly was the 
privilege of the few — good music. Music does 
through the ear what painting does through the eye 
— reaches the soul. When a child or a man has once 
been thrilled through and through by a strain of 
noble music, he will forever live on a higher plane 
than before. 

Music is more universal than painting. When the 
child is born there is rejoicing and music. When he 
worships there is music. When he is in the house of 
mirth there is music. It soothes and inspires, it 
comforts, and expresses joy. At the grave there is the 
solemn hymn and the funeral march. Everywhere 
there is a place for music; and schools are beginning 
to recognize its wide appeal. 

But just as we should seek the society of our betters 
if we wish to improve ourselves, just as the books 



THROUGH IDEALS 99 

that do us most good are those which make us reach 
up, so the music that benefits us must be that which 
lifts us up. There is a distinct danger that the very- 
general use of music in homes will lead to a taste 
for the two-step, the one-step, and other kinds of 
so-called popular music. There is a tendency in 
recent years for every person to dance. The demand 
is for dance music. In some instances people who 
are very fond of dancing care nothing for music of a 
higher class. Music that is not adapted for dancing 
has no meaning for them. This was illustrated at a 
large hotel, where the guests had assembled, and were 
waiting for the musicians before beginning the dance. 
In order to "fill in" the interval one of the guests 
sat down at the piano and played the "Evening Star" 
from Tannhauser. To his utter amazement a number 
of guests stepped on the floor and began to "dance 
it." It meant even less to them than the primrose 
meant to Peter Bell. 

The school should try to counteract this degradation 
of a noble art by giving opportunity for hearing music 
of a high character. The way to educate taste in 
music is to bring pupils into contact with good music 
again and again, and to point out its beauties. This 
leads inevitably to a keener appreciation of all the 
arts. It is the secret in poetry, in painting and in 
sculpture. The school should waste no money on 
worthless records. Only such selections as stand for 
something worthy should be bought. 

The fact is that much of what is called music is not 
music at all. It is only mechanical skill, finger 
exercises, tintinnabulation. It bears the same relation 



100 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

to true music that the chromo does to true painting. 
It has a tendency to deprave the taste, and has there- 
fore no place in the school, and should have no place 
anywhere else. 

The art that most directly reaches the heart, how- 
ever, is poetry. It is more tangible than music, and 
its language is more definite. Through the medium 
of words it can be held in the mind and contemplated 
at all times. If it is the mind that makes the body 
rich, as Shakespeare says, it is poetry that makes the 
mind rich. 

Macaulay argues strongly that a commercial age 
is not favorable to the development of poetry. A 
few generations ago our forefathers often spent their 
evenings with their families, reading aloud the latest 
poems of Emerson, Longfellow, Poe, Wordsworth, 
and Tennyson. They were familiar also with Shake- 
speare, Milton, and other great poets. In our present 
industrial age there is less of family gathering for any 
purpose; and it is to be feared that the poets receive 
scant attention because of the more direct pursuit of 
business and pleasure. Thus it is inevitable that a 
family should lose whatever of good there is in poetry; 
and it is at least questionable whether the things that 
displace it are of equal value. 

In poetry as in music and painting, there is the 
worthy and the unworthy. To some people poetry 
is rhyme. They cannot discriminate between dog- 
gerel and epic. Of course to such poetry has no 
meaning, no message, no appeal. They feel that the 
reading of poetry is a waste of time, and that a love 
of poetry is an indication of an effeminate mind. It 



THROUGH IDEALS 101 

may do for dreamers, but has no claims on practical 
men and women. 

But consider a moment that the great names in 
the history of the world are those of poets — Homer, 
DantCs Shakespeare, Goethe, Milton, and many others. 
Practically every industry in the time of Elizabeth 
has perished, but its poetry remains. The fine arts 
make the most permanent contributions to any age. 

Those who despise poetry simply show their igno- 
rance. If they have nothing to learn from Shake- 
speare, the fault is not in Shakespeare. They simply 
classify themselves among those who have no time 
nor taste for the higher things of life. The rush of 
the automobile is more pleasant to them than a noble 
thought, and the tripping of the toe than the master- 
pieces of Wagner or Beethoven. 

The teacher who is alive to her opportunities, who 
is filled with a desire to bring the real child more 
nearly up to the ideal, will give much attention to the 
study of the ideals embodied in poetry. Dr. White 
has pointed out that a fine thought is greatly enhanced 
through its beautiful expression. Poetry not only 
concerns itseK with ideals, but its medium of com- 
munication is through magic language. Hence its 
effect on the child is probably greater than that of 
any other fine art. 

The beautiful poems of the school readers should 
be regarded by the teacher as treasures. She should 
plainly show the pupils that she loves them. Her 
very enthusiasm will communicate itseK to the pupils. 
It is entirely certain that if a poem means nothing 
to the teacher, it will mean little to the pupils. But 



102 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

by bringing out the truths of the poems, and showing 
their appHcation, and by expressing appreciation of 
their beauties, and by frequent thoughtful, reverent 
repetition of these poems, their ideals will more and 
more become a part of the lives of the children; the 
real will receive more and more of the ideal, and their 
characters will be formed of the imperishable elements 
of true beauty. 



Chapter XVI 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH INSTRUCTION 
IN HEALTH 

Health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a 
blessing that money cannot buy. — Izaak Walton. 

Carlyle says: "There is no kind of achievement 
you could make in the world that is equal to perfect 
health.'' 

The following is from John Locke: "He that sinks 
his vessel by overloading it, though it be with gold 
and silver and precious stones, will give his owner 
but an ill account of his voyage." 

In spite of the fact that an increasing amount of 
attention is given to the subject of personal health 
and hygiene, there are still many homes in which no 
definite and purposeful instruction is given to children 
in regard to the care of their bodies. Go into any 
rural school and ask pupils between the ages of six 
and sixteen whether they regularly take a morning 
bath, and you are very fortunate if one in forty raises 
his hand. Ask how many take a bath regularly once 
a week, and not all hands will even then be raised. 
Then ask how many drink a glass of water before 
breakfast, or brush their teeth, or sleep with open 
windows during the winter, and you will be impressed 
with the need of further effort in teaching personal 
hygiene. 



104 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

It is a curious fact that if any commodity costs 
nothing it is not considered valuable, however impor- 
tant it may be; but as soon as a price is set on it, 
its value is more appreciated. For example, in 
nearly all communities there are delightful walks, 
with beautiful trees and flowers and singing birds and 
pleasant views, and there is health in every step. 
Yet there are very few who seize the opportunity. 
But if some one were to put a fence around a tract 
of land, with entrance at a gate only, and were to 
charge an admission fee of twenty-five cents, the 
number of walkers would be greatly increased. 

Likewise if a physician were to charge a good sum 
for medical advice, and would direct the patient to 
take a morning bath and a glass of water, the advice 
would be followed, and water would seem more 
valuable. 

Nature indeed offers us good health free of cost. 
Water to clean us outwardly and inwardly, and to 
give us oxygen; air to serve the same purpose; hills 
and valleys and outdoor work to give us exercise and 
appetite — the poorest family can enjoy all these gifts, 
and needs little more for good health. Yet these 
priceless gifts, being free, are not esteemed. 

In the schools of New Jersey, and doubtless in some 
other states, there is found in every room a chart 
prepared by the State Board of Health. This chart 
is a portion of the campaign against tuberculosis; 
but it is a compendium of expert advice on hygiene 
couched in the simplest possible language. Its value 
cannot be overestimated. The teacher might well 
say to her pupils, "If you were to go to a physician 



THROUGH INSTRUCTION IN HEALTH 105 

who stands among the foremost in this State, and 
pay him ten dollars for advice, you would consider 
it very important, and would observe it with care. 
The State Board of Health is composed of a number 
of the foremost physicians in this State. You need 
not gO' to the expense of visiting their oflfices, or of 
paying a consultation fee. On this chart they have 
united their knowledge and skill in giving you pre- 
scriptions of the highest value. You need pay no 
fees whatever. Are the prescriptions therefore the 
less important .f^" 

The best plan to use in connection with the observ- 
ance of these or other health rules is to begin with 
certain ones that are very easy to obey, and add to 
these from time to time, finally completing the whole 
list. A certain teacher of a rural school of forty 
pupils urged them to observe what he called "the five 
points," and every morning he asked how many had 
done them. They were, "Wash your face, wash your 
hands, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, eat 
your breakfast." In a short time this teacher had 
established these five habits in all the children. The 
following year a new teacher, hearing of this plan, 
continued it, and added thereto. Thus in a pleasant, 
easy manner the children were given lessons worth 
more than all the technical physiology in the course 
of study. 

Children often feel that a morning bath implies a 
bathroom and bathtub. Of course both are conven- 
ient, but not essential. A pitcher of water with a 
wash bowl or basin, a cloth and a towel, are all the 
necessary materials; and to "wipe and dry the body 



106 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

quickly every day," as the health chart directs, 
requires but two or three minutes of time. Nor is a 
cold sleeping room a suflScient reason for omitting the 
morning bath, inasmuch as the reaction caused by the 
rubbing will do more to heat the body than artificial 
heat or clothing. 

There is small wonder that Carlyle used the strong 
language at the beginning of this chapter. All his 
life he suffered the pangs of dyspepsia. Not only 
did this disease sap his strength and give him great 
distress, but it colored his thinking, so that he 
became morose and fretful. No man can see the 
sunny side of life when afflicted with the pangs of 
indigestion. It may be that Carlyle was conscious 
not only of what he suffered but what he missed when 
he laid supreme emphasis on good health. 

Indigestion is usually caused by unwise eating — 
too much food, poorly cooked food, hasty eating, or 
eating what the system cannot digest. Hence it is of 
great importance that our girls should be taught 
scientific cooking; and it is of still greater importance 
that pupils should be taught the dangers of improper 
eating. By direct instruction on these points the 
teacher can be of great service to the children. 

There are three classes of students — those who 
study properly, those who study too little, and those 
who study too much. In some schools so much 
attention is given to the second class that the third 
is permitted to continue overworking until some of 
them have irreparably injured their health. It is to 
them that the words of John Locke previously quoted 
have special application. 



THROUGH INSTRUCTION IN HEALTH 107 

A young man of eighteen once entered a normal 
school with the avowed purpose of completing a two- 
year course in one year. He did it, but he shattered 
his system; and a year after his graduation the grasses 
were growing on his grave. 

A girl graduated at the head of her class from a 
large city high school. She was appointed to give 
the valedictory. About a week before the graduation 
exercises she became ill. The physicians diagnosed 
the case as appendicitis, and advised an immediate 
operation. The girl absolutely refused to submit to 
this operation until after she had given her valedic- 
tory, and nothing could be done to change her mind. 
She gave the valedictory, was rushed to a hospital, 
but it was too late. She gave her hfe for the sake of 
reciting the honor essay. 

Another girl insisted on studying until midnight 
every evening. Her high school principal warned 
her many times that she was shattering her nerves, 
but she refused to listen. She too graduated at the 
head of the class, but has never since been able to do 
a day's work. 

It is very much easier to get a slack student to 
give enough attention to his studies than to get one 
who over-studies to be reasonable. To the latter the 
teacher must emphasize in season and out the value 
of moderation in all things — self-control even in 
good things. She must point out the great handicap 
in life that comes from a strong mind fettered by a 
weak body. She must take this matter up with the 
parents. She must control the home work of the 
pupils. She must remove all artificial incentives. 



108 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

and other unhealthy stimuli. Every possible effort 
should be made to see that these bright minds are 
reared in bodies of maximum efl&ciency. 

The work of the teacher of today is much more 
complex than a generation ago. She is expected to do 
many things that her predecessors never thought of. 
But amid all her duties there is none that has a 
greater claim on her attention than that of training 
her pupils to take care of their bodies, so that they 
may have an adequate physical basis to do effectively 
their work in the world. 



Chapter XVII 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH REMOVING 
FALSE IDEAS 

What error leads must err. — Shakespeare. 

"The great secret of success m life is to be ready when the oppor- 
tunity comes. " — Disraeli. 

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perse- 
verance." — Samuel Johnson. 

"The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navi- 
gators. " — Gibbon. 

"All actual heroes are essential men. 
And all men possible heroes." — Mrs. Browning. 

"Raleigh found the tower of London a convenient place for writ- 
ing a History of the World." — Hamilton Wright Mabie. 

"Happy are they to whom life brings, not ease and physical com- 
fort, but great chances of heroism, sacrifice, and service." — Mabie. 

*' Genius is about two per cent inspiration; all the rest is perspira- 
tion." — Edison. 

The eight extracts here given are from workers in 
different ages and different spheres. Scores more 
could be quoted; and after many pages were filled, 
the diligent student could not find a single one in 
which emphasis is laid on luck as a factor in life. 
In the eight just quoted the word luck is not even 
mentioned. The ambitious and successful man simply 
gives no place to it whatever in his calculations. 



110 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

For him it does not exist. And, of course, for nobody 
else does it exist. 

Yet there is in the minds of a surprisingly large 
number of people, especially of those who have 
achieved little or nothing, a latent and sometimes 
often expressed idea that one man succeeds because 
he has luck, and another fails because luck is against 
him. Of course, if a man holds this idea, his children 
are more or less imbued with it, and the teacher 
must expel it from their minds. 

The child is at the beginning of life's road. He 
has imbibed instructions, ideas, tendencies from his 
home as to how to proceed on his journey. He has 
had little opportunity to make his own observations, 
and has had no experience. The work of the teacher 
is to give the child the benefit of her own experiences 
and observations. She is presumably educated — 
that is, she has learned in the schools how the journey 
through life may best be made. AH this learning, 
experience and observation should now be bestowed 
on the child, so that he may take no false or unnec- 
essary steps, and may not go wrong; and if his home 
or his associates have given him wrong directions, the 
teacher must detect them and correct them as speedily 
as possible. Perhaps the best way to do this is to 
point out to the child the elements of success as they 
are exemplified in the lives of great men and women. 
The child has a natural respect for the names he 
meets in his textbooks and in the library books; and 
he will be much interested in learning the particulars 
of their lives. The teacher should make a definite 
search for such factors in these lives as led to their 



THROUGH REMOVING FALSE IDEAS 111 

success, and these should be purposefully taught to 
the pupils. 

Alice Freeman Palmer has already been mentioned 
in this book as a very remarkable woman. Her life, 
written by her husband, Professor Palmer, should be 
read by every teacher many times, for her own inspi- 
ration as well as for use among the pupils. While, of 
course, Mrs. Palmer had a remarkable personality, 
yet at fourteen there was little to distinguish her from 
hundreds of other girls of her age. Starting from that 
common basis, the girls of a school will note with 
great interest the courage and perseverance she dis- 
played while making her way through college, her 
heroic struggle to overcome poor health and poverty, 
her fidelity to every duty, and her noble accomplish- 
ments. They will note that no luck was apparent in 
her career. She was made president of Wellesley 
at twenty-six because, as Disraeli says, she was 
"ready when the opportunity came." Many other 
educated women were living at that time, but of them 
all Alice Freeman was most "ready." Hence her 
selection, and her subsequent great success. 

Then there is Napoleon Bonaparte, who when a 
young man, was usually in his attic room engaged in 
deep study when his schoolmates were playing; who 
once worked at a problem in mathematics from Friday 
evening until Monday morning, getting the correct 
result at last; whose customary working day was 
eighteen hours; who when in command of the Army 
of Italy did not average more than two or three 
hours of sleep a night; who lived a marvelous career 
because of his knowledge, his energy, his perseverance. 



112 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

He maintained that his success in war was due to his 
careful attention to every detail of strategy and 
tactics, so as to be ready for any emergency that 
might occur. In other words, he succeeded because 
of his intelligent use of the common qualities that 
should be found in the make-up of all young men. 

Henry Kirke White learned Greek while walking to 
and from a lawyer's office in which he was employed. 
There was no particular genius about this perform- 
ance — simply an intelligent use of spare moments, 
of which many people have a large number. 

George Washington showed by his career in the 
French and Indian War that he was the best qualified 
man to command the Continental Army when the 
war began in 1775; so there was no particular luck 
in his selection by the Continental Congress. In 
1789 there was no question that the ablest man in 
the country to take the helm was Washington, and 
he was elected president. There was httle of the 
brilhant genius in him — only the world-old plain 
quahties of fine manhood. 

History is full of examples that prove conclusively 
that "every man is the architect of his own fortune"; 
that "fools prate of luck"; that there is nothing 
mysterious about success; that there are few chances 
in success; and that life presents a "fair field and 
no favors." 

Neighborhood biography furnishes interesting ex- 
amples for the teacher to use. In all communities 
there are persons more or less prominent locally or in 
the county or state. These men and women are 
known to the children, either personally or by name. 



THROUGH REMOVING FALSE IDEAS 113 

The teacher should become familiar with the par- 
ticulars of their lives, and should point out to the 
pupils how their success was founded on the funda- 
mental virtues that may be acquired by all. 

By such a course the teacher can do a world of 
good in imbuing her children with correct principles, 
thereby expelling from their minds false ideas. It is 
more important that a pupil be ambitious than that 
he be proficient in geography. It is more necessary 
for him to have courage than a knowledge of gram- 
mar. Indeed, proficiency in studies is only a means 
to aid the ambitious young man or woman to advance 
rapidly and achieve great things. It has little value 
as an end. 

If the glory of a school is in the kind of boys and 
girls it produces, then a teacher's supreme object 
should be to instill in them correct principles of life, 
after which they may be left to make their own 
careers with perfect assurance that they will become 
useful men and women. 



Chapteb XVIII 
REACHING TEE CHILDREN THROUGH ALLEGORY 

Allegory dwells in a transparent palace. — Lemieree. 

Hamilton Wright Mabie says: "A man is spe- 
cially and divinely fortunate, not when his conditions 
are easy, but when they evoke the very best that is 
in him." 

Children who cannot thoroughly grasp the impli- 
cations of such a sentiment can see them more plainly 
when they are put in the form of a story. The 
following is not a complete likeness, but it appeals 
to children, especially to such as live among the hills 
or mountains: 

Every boy and girl is going up the side of a moun- 
tain at the top of which is the place called success. 
There are many paths, some quite different from 
others. Here is one — a broad, macadamized road, 
going along at a beautiful grade, with fine curves; 
and lo! here is a young man going up in an automo- 
bile! How rapidly he travels, with no exertion on 
his part. He is wafted up, and the whole trip is a 
pleasure. 

Here is another road, also a good one, but not 
made of stone. The youth is driving up with a horse 
and buggy — not so fast as in an automobile, but 



THROUGH ALLEGORY 115 

still going at a good pace. He sits back enjoying the 
landscape, and looking with a smile at us who are 
trudging along on foot. 

Now we examine more closely our own road. It is 
not a road, only a path. We go along a steep ascent. 
Then we come to a rock, and after much effort 
remove it. Soon we come to another, which our best 
efforts cannot move, so we climb over it, bruising 
our hands and knees. Oh, how tired we are! We 
rest a little while, and then look ahead. The path 
is not clear. There is in the way the largest rock we 
have yet encountered. Surely we cannot remove it, 
neither can we climb over it. Shall we then sit 
down and cry? No, indeed. Let us go forward, 
and take a closer look at it. Why, here is a way 
around it that we couldn't see until we were almost 
against it. Truly this is not so hard a place as the 
other was. We have really not thus far met with 
anything that we could not surmount in some way. 
What is this on ahead .^^ Oh, merely some loose stones 
and a few thorns that grow across the path. On we 
go. We are gaining in strength, we are gaining in 
courage, we have confidence that we can in some way 
overcome any obstacle we meet because we have 
learned how to approach it. By and by we reach the 
summit! 

Now let us compare ourselves with the other two 
young men. Have they gained any strength through 
their trip up the mountain? Have they gained any 
courage? Any ability to overcome obstacles? Have 
they experienced the joy of surmounting what seemed 
insurmountable? No. Their single advantage (?) 



116 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

was that they had a pleasant journey and did not 
need to soil their hands and clothes! 

Let no poor boy envy the well-to-do. He is by 
force of circumstances compelled to take the rough 
and rocky path which he would not himself choose, 
rather than the easy path, which wealth chooses for 
its children. Hence the poor boy gains the strength 
that the rich boy misses. The poor boy gets the 
practice in the qualities of manhood that the rich boy 
cannot experience. The poor boy becomes his own 
master, the rich boy is carried along by somebody 
else. All through life it is the hard things that 
count for something, the easy things that count for 
little. 

A vessel on the Saguenay River was once crossing 
a bay, headed straight for what seemed a solid cliff. 
As she approached the cliff, the passengers speculated 
as to where the vessel would find its entrance. But 
no sign of an entrance could be seen until she was 
within a stone's throw of the cliff. Then a sudden 
turn showed an opening through which she sailed 
calmly on into the waters beyond. 

So it is in life. Even the most courageous person 
sometimes comes to a point where there is a rock 
ahead which he seems unable to scale; but as he 
draws nearer he finds either that the rock is not as 
large as it seemed and can be scaled, or there is some 
way of rolling it away or passing around it. 

Many boys and girls are deterred from aiming for 
a higher education because they are poor, or because 
they live in a remote part of the state, or for some 
other reason. The difficulties in the way seem 



THROUGH ALLEGORY 117 

insurmountable. But the life of Mrs. Palmer and of 
hundreds of others prove that the rocks seem bigger 
than they really are, and that they may be sur- 
mounted if the youth will but approach them with a 
stout heart and a resolute will! 



Chapter XIX 

REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH TACT 

A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning. 

— Old Proverb. 

The word tact means touch. We say a person has 
tact when he knows how to handle men and situa- 
tions. The citizen has tact when, at a public meeting, 
he allays strong feeling between two persons by means 
of quieting remarks. Some people have tact in hand- 
ling horses. Henry Ward Beecher had tact in control- 
ling audiences. Some parents have tact in governing 
their children. 

In its last analysis tact is nothing more than good 
judgment; and just as the power of judgment may 
be developed, so tact may be cultivated. Those who 
have little to start with can by persistent attention 
gain more and more of that quality without which 
much accomplishment is hardly possible. 

Many teachers who are now conspicuously success- 
ful had a hard time to control their pupils during 
their first years of teaching; and if they were asked 
wherein lay their weakness they would doubtless 
reply, "I did not know how to handle pupils. I did 
not use good judgment in my relations with them 
and in my relations with their parents." In other 
words, they lacked tact. 



THROUGH TACT 119 



Another word for tact is the modern word adjust- 
ment. When an organism fits into its environment 
at all points it is said to be completely adjusted. 
When the teacher is properly in touch with the chil- 
dren there is perfect adjustment. When she is "out 
of touch" with any situation, there is necessarily 
more or less discord. 

Perhaps the best illustration of the possession of 
tact in American history is found in Benjamin 
Franklin. Of him the historian Bancroft says, "He 
never spoke a word too soon; he never spoke a word 
too late; he never failed to speak the right word in 
the right place." 

Children can never be permanently reached by 
false alarms. After a boy has been frightened into 
obedience a number of times by the assurance that 
a bear in the woods will eat him up if he does not 
obey, he will naturally learn in time that the speaker 
is lying; and a continuation of that policy will soon 
render the child almost uncontrollable. The intelli- 
gent parent will never employ such tactless and ill- 
advised methods of securing submission. 

Teachers are sometimes tactless in "seeing too 
much." Whenever a child moves, the eye of the 
teacher is on him. When he seeks for something in 
his desk she wants to know what he is looking for. 
When he is out of sight for a minute she asks him 
what he was doing. In other words, she feels that 
she must have knowledge of everything that goes on 
while she is in charge of the children. This leads to 
an almost irresistible desire on the part of the pupils 
to do as many things as possible that she cannot 



120 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

discover; and there is often more downright dis- 
honesty engendered by a teacher of this description 
than by one who has better tact in seeing things. 

A boy of twelve in the seventh grade had for some 
time been hard to manage. After several private 
conversations the principal was gradually getting him 
to see the error of his ways; and one day the boy 
agreed to try for one week so to conduct himself 
that he would not be sent to the office. Four days 
passed, and the boy was not heard from by the prin- 
cipal; but on the fifth day he came to the office, his 
temper evidently aroused. The principal said, "Well, 
Jack, I am sorry you couldn't hold out one day 
longer." "Mr. Blank," said the boy with much 
feeling, "I was good on Monday, Tuesday, Wednes- 
day, and Thursday, and the teacher never said a 
word. This morning I turned round to find where 
the lesson was, and at once the teacher sent me 
down. Do you think that was fair.?" And the prin- 
cipal said impulsively, "No, I don't." 

Here was a sad example of lack of tact. That 
teacher spoiled everything. She could never do any- 
thing with the boy after that. She should not have 
noticed his turning round, even if it was against 
her regulations. If, on the other hand, she had 
said to him on Monday afternoon, "Well, you got 
through today all right," and on Tuesday afternoon, 
"Another good day," and Wednesday, "Three good 
ones," and on Thursday, "Only one more," and had 
overlooked the trifling offence of turning around, the 
boy would have come to the office on Friday after- 
noon in triumph. The few words of tactful encour- 



THROUGH TACT 121 



agement, offered daily, would have given him renewed 
determination; would have stimulated his purpose 
to make a perfect record for one week; and this 
victory would have gone very far to make his good 
conduct permanent. But the teacher not only failed 
to assist his efforts from day to day by an approving 
word, but took the first occasion to demolish the char- 
acter structure he was gradually building up unaided. 

In a boys' boarding school during assembly exer- 
cises one morning some one stepped on a match and 
it ignited with a loud report. The teacher in charge 
said, "There is never any telling what you boys will 
do in the way of disorder. I suppose the next thing 
will be for you to fill your pockets with match heads 
and scatter them all over the floor!'* None of the 
students had thought of doing anything of the kind 
until the teacher suggested it, but they promptly 
acted upon his idea; and in a few days the explosion 
of match heads made all semblance of order impossible. 

The principal was then called in. He announced to 
the students that the following week he would grant a 
holiday so as to give all an opportunity to attend the 
county fair a few miles away. "But," he continued, 
"let us have no more match heads"; and order was 
at once restored. 

A very considerable proportion of school difficulties 
that come up for decision to the State Commissioner 
of Education is caused by the fact that somebody 
somewhere failed to exercise good judgment. Such 
cases as the refusal of a foreign child to pledge 
allegiance to the American flag, or refusal of parents 
to permit a child to attend religious exercises at the 



122 REACHING TEE CHILDREN 

opening of school, can be quietly handled by a tactful 
teacher so that no unpleasant publicity will arise. 
When it is not necessary to bring things to an issue, 
a teacher is foolish to invite trouble. 

Reaching so-called bad boys is more a matter of 
tact than of intelligence or of learning. By means of 
tact the teacher will avoid arousing their evil tenden- 
cies. She will not punish them in such a way as to 
cause excessive resentment. She will give them 
enough interesting work to permit them to give vent 
to their energies. She will fraternize with them, 
take an interest in their sports, be present at their 
match games, help them get up plays, and in many 
other ways skilfully appeal to the better side of their 
natures without saying anything about it. The favorite 
teacher in a high school is nearly always the one who 
plays tennis with the pupils, directs their dramatics, 
is a member of the "Camp-fire Girls" or "Boy 
Scouts," is enthusiastic at the baseball and basket 
ball games, dances with them at their entertainments, 
and always has time to discuss with them matters in 
which they are interested. Such a teacher reaches 
more pupils than do ten others whose sole interest is 
in the subjects they teach. She has ten points of 
adjustment where the others have but one, and that 
of uncertain fit. 

The teacher should first of all be a human being. 
She should be alive to the joys and sorrows that 
animate all children. As she contemplates their 
imperfections she should always think of her own also; 
and she should constantly strive to cultivate the habit 
of Franklin, to do the right thing at the right time. 



Chapter XX 
REACHING THE CHILDREN THROUGH ENTHUSIASM 

There is no teaching until the pupil is brought in the same state 
or principle in which you are; a transfusion takes place; he is you, 
and you are he; there is a teaching; and by no unfriendly chance or 
bad company can he ever quite lose the benefit. — Emeebon. 

" It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes 
a life worth looking at." — Holmes. 

"Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm." 

— Emerson. 

No teacher ever reached her pupils unless she pos- 
sessed and put into her work some of that divine 
element called enthusiasm. This word is derived from 
the Greek and literally means **God in us." It was 
thought by the Greeks that when the eye of the 
poet or the orator rolled "in a fine frenzy," he was 
possessed of a god; and it is not far wrong for us 
to feel that a benignant spirit shines through the 
countenance of the enthusiastic man. 

Enthusiasm has also been compared to fire, by 
means of which other fires are kindled. It has been 
called a contagious quality of the mind that is more 
catching than measles. There are other likenesses 
that have been used. However we think of this 
quality, the teacher cannot do without it if she is 
to make the most of her opportunities. 



124 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

In a high school or college, students are sometimes 
for one period under a teacher who goes through her 
work as a matter of mere routine. The students may- 
do their work fairly well, but there is no deep interest. 
No permanent love for the subject is likely to be 
engendered in any of them. The next period these 
same students meet a teacher who is full of inspira- 
tion. The very air is charged with electricity. The 
dullness of the preceding recitation gives way to Ufe 
and energy. It does not seem to be the same student 
body; yet there has only been a change of teacher. 

It is this enthusiasm that rouses the dull mind from 
its lethargy. The Uve teacher is continually "starting 
something," and that is very likely to "start some- 
body." The pupils catch the teacher's spirit. If her 
mind is aglow with enthusiasm it casts a light on a 
subject otherwise dull. If the teacher feels that her 
subject is of great importance, that it contains most 
fruitful ideas, and that she wants her pupils to gain 
the benefit and pleasure of these ideas, she will put 
her soul into her teaching, and the breath of life will 
cause the instruction to glow with interest. 

Enthusiasm in teaching demands a love of children 
and a consequent desire to do them good. Aversion 
to children is utterly inconsistent with enthusiasm. 
It is not possible for a teacher to put her soul into 
any instruction of pupils she dislikes. Of course such 
a teacher has no proper place in the schoolroom; but 
unfortunately she is sometimes improperly there. 

Enthusiasm in a subject demands a love for it. 
No teacher can do much with a subject she does not 
like. This is again an attitude inconsistent with the 



THROUGH ENTHUSIASM 125 

best teaching. Hence the need of departmental 
work above the fifth or sixth grades, so that teachers 
may have only such subjects as they like best. 

Enthusiasm requires scholarship. The well known 
instance of Dr. Thomas Arnold preparing himself 
every evening for teaching his class in beginning Latin 
is an instance in point. To teach with power there 
must be that confidence and certainty that comes only 
from broad and clear knowledge. The teacher can 
never make her pupils enthusiastic during a recitation 
if her own face is buried in the textbook; but if she 
can stand before the class without any book at all, 
and if possible without any notes, her very attitude 
will tend toward interest and enthusiasm. 

Enthusiasm is aided by means of good health. 
There are some teachers of frail bodies who are almost 
consumed by their enthusiasm; and there are others 
of fine physique whose teaching is lifeless. But the 
true teacher is more apt to be enthusiastic if she is 
feeling well than if she is worn out. Some superin- 
tendents do not seem to take account of this fact, and 
they make so many requirements of their teachers in 
the way of records, reports, meetings and conferences 
of all kinds, that the teachers are too tired when 
they reach school in the morning to give their best 
selves to the work. Teachers have a duty toward 
their class in refraining from excessive work or social 
diversions; in seeing to it that they begin the day 
fresh and bright. The fagged out mind must be 
driven. Whatever enthusiasm is aroused is thus the 
result of force and not of natural spontaneity. It is un- 
healthy, and therefore likely to lead to ruin in the end. 



126 REACHING THE CHILDREN 

Enthusiasm is promoted by pleasant living condi- 
tions. It is far better for a teacher to pay a higher 
sum for a room and board in a home she likes, than 
to pay a dollar a week less in a home she does not 
like. If her room is uncomfortably cold during the 
winter, her enthusiasm is very likely to be chilled. 
If she does not get tasteful and nourishing food, she 
cannot proceed with the energy that arises out of 
properly satisfied physical conditions. If the family 
life is discordant, or the children are annoying, the 
teacher cannot maintain a serene spirit. Hence when 
a teacher inquires for board, she should take great 
care to examine into conditions before she chooses. 
It is sometimes wise to engage board temporarily, 
and if necessary make a change afterwards, even if it 
leads to estrangement with the family. It is easier to 
bear this criticism than a year's discomfort. 

Enthusiasm is promoted by attendance at a summer 
school for teachers. Usually the school year closes 
about June 20, and opens September 10. The summer 
vacation is therefore from ten to twelve weeks long. 
Summer school terms are usually five or six weeks in 
length. Therefore a teacher may attend a summer 
school for six weeks, and yet have from four to six 
weeks at her disposal for rest and recreation. 

Things educational are moving so rapidly these days 
that the teacher who does not improve herself falls 
behind. School work is viewed from a totally differ- 
ent aspect from what it was even ten years ago. The 
standard of teaching required in good schools has 
risen rapidly since that time. Hence it behooves even 
the good teacher to get the new viewpoint; to learn 



THROUGH ENTHUSIASM 127 

to see her work from a different angle; to seek the 
new elements that educational progress is introducing. 
This in itself will give the teacher a new interest in 
her work, and tend to maintain her enthusiasm. 

But the finest influence of the summer school is in 
its spirit. This is hard to define. Those who have 
experienced it come back to their work with a "some- 
thing" they never had before. It is not so much the 
instruction they have received as the air they have 
breathed that gives them the glow of enthusiasm, as 
they say, "Oh, it was fine!" 

It is not intended that teachers should take so 
many courses that the summer school means work 
only. Two courses a day are suflficient. There is 
then time for rest, for recreation, and for social life. 
Thus the summer school may be a fine vacation, with 
just enough work to give the mind a valuable founda- 
tion for creative thinking. Those who have observed 
this summer school movement for a number of years 
will agree that its finest work is the spreading of 
enthusiasm among teachers, who in turn communicate 
it to their pupils, and thus reach them. 

The joy that comes from the enthusiastic pursuit 
of one's vocation is one of the greatest blessings of 
life. "It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." 
To such a person life is one long happy day. Its 
clouds but form the background for the golden gleams 
of the sunlight. This Hfe is possible to the teacher who 
puts her soul into her work, and her influence for good 
in the lives of her pupils is immeasurable. 



